On Saturday afternoon, senior Danny Jones scored 21 points on 8-for-8 shooting to lead No. 11 Randolph-Macon past visiting Washington & Lee 72-41 in ODAC action.

  Though not indicative from the final score, the visiting Generals battled the Yellow Jackets neck-and-neck through the first 22 minutes of play.

  It was an uncharacteristic first half for the Yellow Jackets (19-3 / 11-2 ODAC), allowing W&L (12-8 / 5-7) to shoot 43.5 percent from the floor, while they themselves were limited to one offensive rebound.

  “You’ve got to give them a lot of credit for playing hard and playing together,” said R-MC head coach Nathan Davis. “They were blocking us out, they’re very physical. They were forcing our guys who were trying to rebound to stay off the glass and you’ve got to give them credit for blocking out. But as the game went on we were able to give them a little bit more.”

  Though R-MC ran out to a 10-point lead midway through the first, W&L climbed back into the contest on the solid shooting of Jeremy Adkins, who scored all of his seven points in the first half, allowing the Generals to go on an 8-0 run and trail R-MC 31-26 heading into the locker room.

  The greatest indicator of uncharacteristic output by the Jackets came in the play of senior Kevin Voelkel, who came into the contest averaging one turnover per game, but had three in the first half against the Generals.

  “It was definitely one of those halves,” Voelkel said. “…kind of trying to get the ball inside, trying to force it when it wasn’t there.”

  Voelkel’s third turnover came on an open court fast break with :02 in the half when he was called for a charge.

  “Hopefully, that’s my last three turnover half of the season,” Voelkel laughed.

  But Davis stuck with Voelkel, and the senior did not have another turnover in the game. “It happens,” he said. “It wasn’t his best performance, but he was still bringing energy and doing a lot of things to help us and stuck with it.”

  Davis clearly saw what the Jackets needed to work on to slow down W&L in the second half. “I thought in the first half, they had 26 points and we felt like we gave them six offensive rebounds which led to about four or five points,” he said. “We got beat on middle drives three times which led to four or five points, so we felt like it was things we could easily control, and giving them 12-14 points. We felt that we wanted to come back in the second half and make sure that we took those things away.”

  But R-MC did not take it away immediately.

  The Generals came out of the locker room hot, scoring the first four points of the half to trim R-MC’s lead to one, 31-30.

  A thunderous dunk from Brandon Braxton (12 points) momentarily widened the margin but a jumper from W&L’s Larry Whitaker narrowed the margin to one once again.

  Though it got off to a late start, the Yellow Jacket defense suddenly tightened, leading to a R-MC offensive explosion and a 30-6 run over the next 12 minutes of play, turning the contest into a rout.

  “I think we just keyed in defensively,” said senior guard Eric Pugh. “We just started playing together. We were playing hard at the start but mentally we were making mistakes and we just keyed in and decided to focus on the things we know how to do.”

  For Voelkel it was merely a matter of tinkering until it came out right. “I think we knew kind of early on there were some minor adjustments and then obviously it’s a game of momentum,” he said. “When we start doing the little things right we start making shots and you know we started lock down on defense and that kind of stuff definitely carries over. That’s how you go on runs.”

  Davis did not change his game plan even after W&L trimmed the margin to one. “I wish I could tell you I said something magical but it’s the same thing about us coming out, we’ve got to a better job in the second half of dictating the way the game’s played,” he said. “We get some stops and come out of the time out and put a nice little string together where we got some stops which led to us getting some easier baskets and get some flow offensively.”

  Next up for the Yellow Jackets is what could conceivably be their biggest game of the year. On Wed. Feb. 9, R-MC travels to Va. Wesleyan for a contest that could decide the regular season ODAC championship. The Marlins sit at 10-1 in ODAC play, one game head of the Yellow Jackets.

  “It’s a big one,” Voelkel said. “We’re not kind of going into it pretending. We know what’s at stake and we know we’re playing for first place. I think our concentration all year has been great. We’re going into it knowing that we’ve got to prepare as hard or harder than we have all year. We’re definitely going to be ready.”

  When the Marlins defeated R-MC on Dec. 1, it was game that the Yellow Jackets felt they let slip through their fingers.

  “We made a ton of errors,” Pugh said. “We’re going to be ready and hopefully we’ll get a win this time.”

  Voelkel agreed. “Whenever you lose you kind of like to pick apart the different pieces but I think that was one where there were so many plays where we just kind of missed a 50-50 ball or something like that. I think we’re going to makes sure that doesn’t happen again.”

RANDOLPH-MACON 72, WASHINGTON & LEE 41
WASHINGTON & LEE (12-8 / 5-7 ODAC)
ADKINS, Jeremy 3-7 0-0 7; EY, J.D. 3-8 1-4 7; KIMBERLY, Drew 3-5 1-4 7;
BOND, Kyle 2-4 2-2 6; RICE, John 2-6 2-2 6; WHITAKER, Larry 2-4 0-0 4;
GUEST, Jon 1-5 2-2 4; SMITH, Will 0-1 0-0 0; GILL, Kevin 0-4 0-0 0; HARRIS,
Hans 0-2 0-0 0; COURSEY, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0; CIMINO, Jason 0-2 0-0 0. Totals
16-48 8-14 41.
RANDOLPH-MACON (19-3 / 11-2 ODAC)
JONES, Danny 8-8 4-5 21; BRAXTON, Brandon 6-9 0-0 12; CROSKEY, Calvin 4-9
0-0 10; DESGAIN, Adam 3-4 0-0 8; GIGGETTS, Lamar 1-7 3-3 5; PUGH, Eric 2-5
0-0 5; SCHEELER, Thomas 1-2 0-0 3; SIMON, Andre 1-2 0-0 2; BROWN, Jordan 1-3
0-0 2; CAMPION, Billy 1-1 0-0 2; VOELKEL, Kevin 1-1 0-0 2; COLE, Dylan 0-0
0-0 0; POWELL, Jamaal 0-1 0-0 0; DESGAIN, Chase 0-2 0-0 0; ROBINSON, Jamie
0-1 0-0 0; COOK, Chris 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-57 7-8 72.
Washington & Lee…...........  26   15 -  41
Randolph-Macon….............  31   41 -  72
3-point goals—Washington & Lee 1-11 (ADKINS, Jeremy 1-4; GILL, Kevin 0-3;
HARRIS, Hans 0-2; CIMINO, Jason 0-2), Randolph-Macon 7-16 (CROSKEY, Calvin
2-5; DESGAIN, Adam 2-3; JONES, Danny 1-1; PUGH, Eric 1-3; SCHEELER, Thomas
1-1; DESGAIN, Chase 0-1; COOK, Chris 0-1; BROWN, Jordan 0-1). Fouled
out—Washington & Lee-None, Randolph-Macon-None. Rebounds—Washington & Lee
29 (KIMBERLY, Drew 8), Randolph-Macon 36 (VOELKEL, Kevin 6; JONES, Danny 6).
Assists—Washington & Lee 6 (WHITAKER, Larry 2; BOND, Kyle 2),
Randolph-Macon 15 (PUGH, Eric 4). Total fouls—Washington & Lee 10,
Randolph-Macon 14. Technical fouls—Washington & Lee-None,
Randolph-Macon-None. A-973