For Immediate Release
February 20, 1999


Maroons' Season Comes to a Close in the ODAC Tournament
Roanoke Falls to Virginia Wesleyan in Quarterfinals

SALEM, Va.--The Roanoke College Maroons saw their season comes to an end tonight, as they fell to the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins, 94-83, in the Quarterfinals of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference basketball tournament. Roanoke ends its season with a 12-13 record, and a 9-9 mark in league play.
 
The Maroons held a 44-43 halftime advantage, but could not hold on in the second frame, and lost to VWC for just the second time in the tournament, but for the third time this year. The loss was just the 10th Roanoke has ever suffered in the conference's post-season; the team now boasts a 35-10 mark in the tournament.

The first half was tightly played, with neither team taking more than a five-point lead, while the game was tied seven times. The Marlins jumped out to an 11-6 lead with just over four minutes gone in the first half, but Roanoke scored the next 10 points to grab a five-point advantage with 14:06 remaining on the clock. From there, the game was back and forth, with both teams exchanging the lead seven times. With 2:42 until the intermission, Virginia Wesleyan again grabbed a five-point lead, but the Maroons closed out the first half with a 6-0 run to take the one-point halftime lead.

Roanoke had the first half lead despite Virginia Wesleyan's 60 percent shooting percentage from the floor. RC took advantage of nine VWC turnovers and an 8-3 margin from the free throw line to take the lead.

The first five minutes of the second half spelled trouble for Roanoke, as VWC scored the first six points of the frame to go up, 49-44. Before those five minutes had elapsed in the second half, VWC had outscored Roanoke 12-3 and taken a 55-47 lead. After the Maroons had trimmed the deficit to just two points, the Marlins went on a 13-4 run that pushed the gap to 11 points. A Dewayne Bullock (Indianapolis, IN/Arsenal Tech) steal and layup with about nine minutes to go sparked an RC run in which the team again got to within two points of the number-three seeded team. But Virginia Wesleyan would let RC get no closer and closed out the game with clutch free throw shooting to slide the final margin of victory to 11 points.

Freshman guard Robby Pridgen (Akron, OH/St. Vincent/St. Mary) topped the Maroon scoring column for the third time in the past five games. He finished the night with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including five three-pointers. Jason Strickland (Charlottesville, VA/Covenant) added 17 points to the Maroon effort, going 11-of-13 from the charity stripe in the contest. Alex Phillips (Roanoke, VA/Cave Spring) tallied 12 points in the game and added seven rebounds, as did Strickland.

After shooting 60 percent from the floor in the first half, the Marlins did themselves better in the second, hitting 64 percent of their attempts. For the game, VWC shot 61.8 percent from the field, by far the best number by a Roanoke opponent this season (only four other teams shot better than 50 percent from the field).

This is the first time since 1992 that the Maroons have been knocked out of the tournament in the first round. The culprit that season was Virginia Wesleyan. Roanoke is also 0-2 when it is the sixth seed in the tournament; the team lost to HSC in the 1991 first round when its was number-six.