On Saturday afternoon, the Randolph-Macon women’s basketball team came into the second round of their Tip-Off Classic still high from beating No. 14 Mary Washington the day before.  Yet, it quickly became apparent that they had difficulty finding their groove against Ferrum College, falling to the Panthers 70-63. 

  “We played hard last night,” said R-MC head coach, Carroll LaHaye.  “We had a great win against the nationally ranked team.”

  But facing a solid Ferrum squad as a follow-up tested the Yellow Jacket’s ability to do so on a regular basis early in the season.

  “We’re still finding ourselves a little bit,” LaHaye said. “Right now we lack some consistency.  We’re playing a lot of different combinations.  Sometimes those combinations work, and sometimes they don’t.  Tonight we just never did get the right combination.”

  The Panthers on the other hand, were eager to put their Friday loss to Roanoke behind them.  By the close of the first period, they had run out a nine point lead, largely due to shooting 45 percent to RMC’s 32 percent.

  “I think that they executed their offense to perfection,” LaHaye said.  “The scouting report that we had on them was ‘block, low block, low block, low block.’  And I thought that we were prepared to play against that, but we certainly didn’t show that tonight.  I think that we didn’t pressure the ball enough and they were allowed to run their offense the way they wanted to, and they did very well at that.”

  Panthers’ head coach Bryan Harvey knew his team had their work cut out for them coming into the Classic. “We knew coming down here this weekend that all four teams were going to be quality teams,” he said. “They were good opponents for us, and a chance for us to see where we were.  We felt like last night (Roanoke) we kind of let it get away from us down the stretch…didn’t execute…weren’t very disciplined.  And today, we knew we were going to have to play a lot better.”

  The Jackets made a second half rally with short bursts of scoring combined with a pressing defense to get within a couple of points of the Panthers. But without the consistency they were looking for, they fell further behind as the game progressed. 

  “We just put that press in the other day, so I wasn’t even quite sure we should do it, but I was pleased with the effort,” LaHaye said.

  Jennifer O’Briant was an example of R-MC’s shooting woes, going 1-for-6 on the evening. “It was a rough shooting night for us; but overall I think that we didn’t come out with enough intensity that we had last night,” she said. “I think we made some runs, but we couldn’t keep it going.  We definitely were on a very big high from last night’s win; so, I definitely think that had something to do with it.  Any other night, maybe things could have been different; but you gotta learn from it.  We’ll do better next time.”

  Molly Brown was in the same boat going 2-for-7. “Her shots were not falling tonight; but normally she is a very good shooter,” LaHaye said. “She definitely has the green light when the ball is in her hands, ‘cause she’s one of our better shooters and she’s not afraid to shoot, and that’s what it takes.”

  Maggie Roy led the Yellow Jackets on back to back nights, scoring 12 points against Mary Washington and 16 against Ferrum. Roy showed moments of offensive brilliance hitting 7-of-13 field goals and 2-of-5 three-pointers. 

  Lindsay Sharman and Katie Williams added 10 each while Taylor Wieczorek pulled down six rebounds on the night.

  The final shooting percentages varied little from first half and from LaHaye’s standpoint, the Yellow Jackets needed to just shoot the ball.  “We didn’t even take the shots that I thought we had,” she said. “I thought that our shooters stood around a little bit.  We’ll work on it.  The things that I saw that we can improve on, can be improved on.  So, I’m pretty excited about the spirit of this group and also the potential of it.

  “That’s always a tough job for a coach is making sure that your shooters continue to shoot…whether they miss a basket or six baskets,” LaHaye added. “You’ve got to shoot, ‘cause you always miss 100 percent of those shots you don’t take.  But the kids, they want to be perfect all the time.  They take a lot of pride with their academics, and they do the same thing with their basketball; and they just think that they’re supposed to play perfect all time.  Sometime that gets in the way.”

  R-MC plays at Eastern Mennonite on Tuesday night then travels to Lynchburg on Nov. 30.
 
FERRUM 70, RANDOLPH-MACON 63

FERRUM (1-2) BULLOCK, Brittney 7-12 1-2 15; KIPPS, Katy 4-7 0-1 8; SMITH, Shea 3-10 2-2 8; KEITH, Kristen 4-11 0-0 8; GOINS, Kayla 3-6 1-2 7; AKERS, Tesla 3-9 0-0 7; FRAZIER, Kelsey 2-3 0-0 4; CLEMENTS, Ashley 2-4 0-0 4; BURWELL, Boreika 1-2 1-1 3; TERRY, Teara 1-1 0-0 3; FARMER, Amanda 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 31-67 5-8 70.

RANDOLPH-MACON (2-1) ROY, Maggie 7-13 0-0 16; WILLIAMS, Katie 3-9 4-4 10; SHARMAN, Lindsey 4-6 2-3 10; WIECZOREK, Taylor 2-4 4-4 8; ASAY, Jillian 1-6 2-2 5; BROWN, Molly 2-7 0-0 4; O’BRIANT,Jennifer 1-6 2-2 4; CANTRELL, Jordan 0-2 3-4 3; DULANEY, Madison 0-4 3-4 3; PHELPS, Christina 0-0 0-1 0; GRUNE, Stephanie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-57 20-24 63.

Ferrum…...................  37   33 -  70
Randolph-Macon…..  28   35 -  63

3-point goals—Ferrum 3-10 (FARMER, Amanda 1-2; AKERS, Tesla 1-5; TERRY, Teara 1-1; GOINS, Kayla 0-1; SMITH, Shea 0-1), Randolph-Macon 3-17 (ROY, Maggie 2-5; ASAY, Jillian 1-3; BROWN, Molly 0-2; O’BRIANT,Jennifer 0-2; CANTRELL, Jordan 0-1; DULANEY, Madison 0-1; WILLIAMS, Katie 0-3). Fouled out—Ferrum-None, Randolph-Macon-None. Rebounds—Ferrum 42 (BULLOCK, Brittney 8), Randolph-Macon 35 (WIECZOREK, Taylor 6). Assists—Ferrum 18 (KEITH, Kristen 5), Randolph-Macon 11 (WILLIAMS, Katie 6). Total fouls—Ferrum 18, Randolph-Macon 14. Technical fouls—Ferrum-None,
Randolph-Macon-None. A-691