The Roanoke College men’s basketball team took to court Thursday night averaging 107 points per game and looking for their seventh straight win.
After 20 minutes of play, most onlookers in the Bast Center in Salem thought both of those streaks were in major jeopardy.
Trailing by 15 points midway through the first half against the hot-shooting Shenandoah Hornets, the Maroons fought back to tie things at the end of regulation before pulling away in the second overtime to come away with the 108-97 victory.
It was an uphill climb for Roanoke all night. The Maroons never led during the first 40 minutes of regulation.
Shenandoah scored the game’s first six points, and after the Maroons closed to 13-12, the Hornets went on a 15-0 run to take a 28-12 lead before Roanoke junior John Fitchett stopped the bleeding with a free throw with 7:56 left in the opening half.
Roanoke, normally deadly from behind-the-arc, missed their first 8 three-point attempts, and Shenandoah’s offense was on fire, leading to the Hornets taking taking a 46-34 advantage to the halftime break.
Roanoke changed its offensive strategy to start the second half, continually driving to the basket for higher percentage shots. The Maroons canned 60.7 % of their shots in the second half.
Shenandoah still led 80-73 with just over two minutes left when Roanoke put together an 8-1 run capped off by sophomore Joey Miller’s runner in the paint that tied things at 81 with 21.8 seconds left.
The Hornets held for the final shot, but came away empty on E.J. Baltimore’s jumper in the closing seconds.
Roanoke took its first lead of the game to start the first overtime on a Cameron Smith basket, and after Shenandoah went up 92-90 on a free throw by Antwan Pittman with 43.1 seconds left in the first extra frame, Smith found the net on a runner to tie things at 92.
Shenandoah again held for the last shot, but the Roanoke defense forced a shot clock violation that sent the game to the second extra 5 minute session.
It was all Roanoke in the second overtime.
Bryce Woodliff’s 3-pointer and a pair of driving baskets by Smith helped push the Maroons to a 101-96 lead. Down the stretch, Roanoke hit 7-of-8 free throws to seal their seventh straight win and improve to 2-0 in the ODAC.
“We didn’t shoot the 3-ball like we have been,” Roanoke head coach Page Moir noted in the Maroon locker room afterward. “We got better once we attacked the basket. We were able to make some shots in the second half to get back in the game. Hitting the foul shots in the end was huge.”
“Give Roanoke credit,” Shenandoah head coach Rob Pryor said. “They came through and finished, we didn’t. They settled for 3s in the first half, and in the second half they drove it. In the first half we contested and rebounded the ball. In the second half, we played not to lose rather than playing to win. Roanoke is always a challenge.”
Smith led the Maroons with a game-high 30 points. Miller knocked down 20 points, with freshman John Caldwell adding 18 and Fitchett scoring 16 for Roanoke.
Baltimore paced Shenandoah with 19 points, while Pittman and Aaron Patterson each added 15 points for the Hornets.
Bill Turner
