After last year’s graduation of D-III Player of the Year Molly Ariail, this was supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Randolph-Macon women’s basketball team. But instead the Yellow Jackets came into Friday night’s home matchup against Roanoke as part of a 3-way tie atop the Old Dominion Athletic Conference standings. R-MC, Bridgewater and Roanoke entered the final weekend of the regular season each sporting a 15-3 league record. When the dust had cleared, the Yellow Jackets walked away as a regular season co-champion and the # 1 seed in this week’s ODAC tournament in Salem, Va. 

  R-MC earned their way to the co-championship by downing Roanoke 56-45 on Friday night then defeating Hollins 81-63 on Saturday afternoon. The Yellow Jackets earned the top seed in the ODAC Tournament by splitting games with Bridgewater during the regular season and beating Roanoke both home and away.

  With Hollins holding a 3-16 league record, R-MC knew their title hopes hinged on downing Roanoke for a second time.

  Though the Yellow Jackets gave up a sizable advantage in height to the Maroons, they played big throughout, hampering Roanoke’s inside game and virtually shut down any offense from beyond the parameter.

  Roanoke brought a formidable front line to the floor in the form of 6-2 Nicci Moats and 6-1 Jordan Gholston. Moats came into the contest as the top rebounder in the ODAC while Gholston sat at No. 10. Gholston led the league in field goal percentage at .568 while Moats was third at .493. And if that wasn’t enough, Moats led the ODAC in blocked shots while Gholston was No. 5.

  As a team Roanoke was No. 3 in scoring defense and No. 2 in rebounding margin.

  “The game plan was really just to shut down their two post players,” said R-MC senior Katie Williams. “Their dominant post players Gholston and Nicci Moats have definitely had a big impact on their team, so we thought if our post players could get them out of their game it would be a lot harder for them to put points on the board.”

  Fellow senior Jennifer O’Briant concurred. “We’ve got to stop their post, that’s their biggest stuff that they have,” she said. “We knew coming into the game that our post had to step up and do what they needed to do and they did.”

  R-MC was not at a total disadvantage when it came to board work or defense. The Yellow Jackets came into the contest ranked second in the ODAC in both scoring defense and offense. And despite a lack of height, R-MC sat ahead of he Maroons in rebounding margin per game.

  “We knew that we needed to sprint down court and beat them to the block because that’s their game, that’s where they like to hang out,” said R-MC head coach Carroll LaHaye.

  Randolph-Macon couldn’t completely shut down the Maroon duo but they did limit their effectiveness with sticky position defense and box-outs. Moats (12 points, 15 rebounds) and Gholston (14 points, 16 rebounds) both finished with double-doubles but the pair combined for 12-of-38 shooting in close for .315 percent from the floor; far below their average.

  R-MC virtually shut down the rest of the Roanoke squad, holding them to a 6-for-28 performance. As a team, Roanoke was held to 27.3 percent shooting including 9.17 percent from three point range.

  Meanwhile O’Briant nearly picked up a double-double with 11 rebounds, eight points and four assists, while center Taylor Wieczorek picked up 10 points in the paint.

  The Yellow Jackets led 18-11 with seven minutes left in the half when Roanoke started chipping their way back into the contest. By the 2:31 mark, Gholston connected on a layup to give Roanoke a 23-22 lead.

  But less than 30 seconds later, sophomore Jordan Cantrell answered with a three for R-MC.

  Moats knotted the game at 25 and Cantrell scored again to give Macon a 27-25 lead heading into the locker room, despite shooting 22.7 percent from the floor in the half.

  That changed in the second half as juniors Molly Brown (9 points) and Maggie Roy (11 points) went to work.

  With 15 minutes to play, Roanoke trailed 36-32 but R-MC took control with a 17-5 run over the next 11 minutes to seal the win.

  The victory and ODAC championship was especially sweet for Yellow Jackets seniors O’Briant and Williams because few thought it was possible after the graduation of Ariail.

  “It’s an amazing feeling,” Williams said. “It’s been a really long season and I definitely at the beginning of the season, if you asked me if we would be here, I definitely wouldn’t have said that, but this team is incredible. They’ve worked so hard this season so I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

  O’Briant agreed. “Everybody’s stepped in to where they needed to step in. Losing Molly Ariail last year was a huge hurt to the team but I think everyone stepped up. Taylor (Wieczorek) stepped up and played a huge role for us. Maggie Roy’s played well. Katie, my other senior, she’s been playing really well, helping me out in the guard position. It’s just been a great experience because we’ve really helped each other out. It’s just been the best team experience I’ve had here at Macon. It’s just amazing. It’s just exactly what I would want for my senior year so I can only hope for the best and take care of business tomorrow.”

  Picking up the championship in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year for R-MC also makes it especially sweet for their coach. “I’m very proud of this team,” LaHaye said. “I told them last week after we lost a heart-breaker at Bridgewater that this is probably one of the most fun team’s I’ve had and I’ve had a lot of really, really fabulous teams and fun teams but this group they come every day to practice and they want more.”

  The Yellow Jackets open ODAC play against #8 seed Lynchburg at 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Salem Civic Center. The semifinals are played Saturday and the championship Sunday, Feb. 27 at 1 p.m.