Randolph men rally for Senior Day win

Despite a questionable call that cost it one of its senior leaders, the Randolph College men’s basketball team was able to maintain its composure over the final three minutes Saturday and knock off visiting Guilford, 67-58, on a very emotional Senior Day.

RC seniors Julius Thomas, Malcolm Nelson and Derrick Woods-Morrow were the honored before the game.

Woods-Morrow, the school’s all-time leading rebounder and one of just two players to score a 1,000 points, was called for his fifth foul for bumping into the Quakers Josh Pittman while hedging around a screen with 2:41 and the WildCats up 61-53.

Until that point, the referee’s had been letting both teams get away with a lot of contact on the perimeter. Randolph coach Clay Nunley was clearly upset with the call and for several moments voiced his displeasure loudly enough to be heard over the crowd.

 Pittman made the free throws and Gabriel Louder followed with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 61-58 with 1:40 to play. Nunley called timeout to get his team organized and the WildCats went to guard Colton Hunt who was being defended by a bigger and slower player.

As the shot clock ran down, Hunt drove past his man and drew a foul. He made both ends of a one-and-one and Randolph closed out the game by going six-for-six from the foul line to seal the victory.

“It was a good win anytime you can celebrate three guys having four great years here,” Nunley said. “We always play for the team, but today we also played for three guys that had great careers and a great body of work here.”

The game got off to heart-warming — or heart-breaking — beginning as Nelson started the game for Randolph despite being barely able to walk after suffering a season-ending injury earlier in the year. He also missed a large portion of his junior season with a knee injury.

The officials stopped the game after Guilford gained control of the tip-off and allowed the WildCats to sub for Nelson, who was greeted with a rousing ovation by fans from both schools.

The Quakers (16-7, 10-4 ODAC) then got down to business and took a 5-0 and then a 10-5 lead before Randolph reeled them in and evened things at 12-12. The score was evened again at 14-14, but the WildCats led the rest of the first half. Randolph was ahead by as many as nine points and took a 36-32 lead into the locker room.

Guilford went on an 8-0 run to start the second half. The teams then traded runs and eventually found themselves level at 51. Then the WildCats’ Dylan Shiflett started an 8-0 run for Randolph with a layup and the WildCats (11-12, 6-8) never lost the lead after that.

Randolph’s Mike Ehilegbu led all scorers with 22 points, 16 of which came in the first half. Woods-Morrow and Shiflett both finished with 10 points and six rebounds. Hunt tallied 15 points, six assists and five steals. Pittman led the Quakers with 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

“It was a tough win and we knew we were going to have to battle,” Ehilegbu said. “That’s two years in a row that we’ve sent our seniors off with a win. It feels really good.”

The WildCats’ victory keeps the pressure on Lynchburg (14-9, 8-6) for the fifth seed in the ODAC tournament that carries the last of the of the first-round-byes with it. The Hornets host Virginia Wesleyan (19-3, 11-2) and Randolph visits Roanoke College (6-17, 2-12) on Wednesday before the cross-town rivals meet on Feb. 18 in the regular-season finale at Lynchburg.

“We need to keep playing the way we are right now,” Nunley said. “They have a confidence about them right now for how we need to keep playing. We had great contributions across the board.”