SALEM — Randolph-Macon’s extraordinary run came to a screeching halt last night.
Wisconsin-Stevens Point stormed into the game and never relented, eliminating R-MC in the NCAA Division III semifinals 72-60. The Pointers advance to Saturday’s NCAA championship game against Williams, which defeated ODAC champion Guilford 97-88 in the other semifinal game.

But for the Yellow Jackets, a team that was ranked No. 1 earlier in the season, they have nothing left but an optimistic look toward next season, a recognition of a hard-fought loss and a long bus ride home.

“It’s disappointing to get a loss like this,” junior forward Danny Jones said. “To get where we are today, we’re definitely fortunate.”

On the first play of the game, Jared Jenkins of Stevens Point hit a 3-point shot. Then the Pointers kept scoring and kept making RMC miss. Suddenly, the Yellow Jackets were down 16-3 with just more than 14 minutes left in the first half.

Jenkins, who finished with a team-high 17 points, was doing simply what the Pointers do, coach Bob Semling said. They get off to a fast start and see “How long can we keep our opponent from scoring.

“That’s who we are,” Semling said. “We’re a defensive team. We try to frustrate teams defensively.”

While the Pointers kept Macon to only 28 percent field goal percentage in the first half and completed 50 percent of their own, RMC coach Nathan Davis didn’t lose his head.

“We wanted to get off to a better start,” Davis said. ”But I didn’t feel like . . . we were in a terrible position.”

Early in the second half, the Pointers’ lead stretched to 24 points. Macon began a second-half drive, but each comeback attempt was just one missed layup or one foul away from making the game close again. The Yellow Jackets cut their deficit to eight points with three minutes left, but it was too little, too late.

“[Coach Davis] said to go out swinging, and I think we accomplished that,” Jones said.

Added junior guard/ forward Kevin Voelkel, “There were moments in this game where we had our backs up against the wall . . . and we said we have to go out and do it for ourselves. That’s the thing to take away, just being able to ignite yourselves and create that fire.”

R-MC completed 21 of 53 field goal attempts (39.6 percent). Many Yellow Jackets just couldn’t hit their shots. Eric Pugh made 3 of 11; Calvin Croskey 2 of 10. Stevens Point hit 45.8 percent of its shots, including 9 of 14
(64.3 percent) from behind the arc.

“They forced us to do some things we haven’t done in awhile,” Davis said. “They’re very physical. They’ve got a lot of strong kids that were able to knock us off our screens. Consequently, we got a little rushed. We allowed them to make it a one-on-one game, and that’s not our strength.

Our strength is five guys playing together.” Sophomore Adam Desgain (J.R. Tucker) led the Yellow Jackets with 14 points. Jones finished with 11. Macon was 8 of 19 (42 percent) from behind the 3-point line.

The youngest team in the Final Four, Randolph-Macon returns all five starters next year. Pugh, Voelkel (Collegiate), Jordan Brown (L.C. Bird) and Brandon Braxton are all juniors. Croskey is a sophomore.

Macon’s two seniors, Tim Lawrence and Michael Strickland, don’t get much playing time.

R-MC started 13-0 in Davis’ first year as coach of his alma mater. The Yellow-
Jackets jumped to No. 1 in the D3hoops.com poll in January, before finishing 16th in the final ranking.

“We definitely appreciate Coach coming in here and doing what he did with us,”
Jones said. “We got here, so we’re definitely going to listen to him next year.”

Eric Kolenich is a staff writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.

RANDOLPH-MACON (26-7)
Pugh 8, Voelkel 0, Croskey 9, Brown 6,
Braxton 5, Lawrence 3, Strickland 0, Blumel
0, Davis 0, Desgain 14, Giggetts 0, Jones 11,
Scheeler 3, Cole 0, Campion 1. Totals 21,
10-16, 60.
WISCONSIN-STEVENS POINT (28-4)
Moses 11, Jenkins 17, Hurd 14, Krull 7,
Hoelzel 5, Harris 6, Tillema 5, Forman 0. Totals
22, 19-27, 72.
3-pointers: R-MC: Pugh 2, Croskey 2,
Desgain 2, Lawrence, Scheeler; W-SP: Hurd
4, Jenkins 2, Moses, Harris, Tillema.
Halftime: W-SP 38-19