For Immediate Release January 12, 2000
Maroons Sweep Washington & Lee
Women Win 66-49, Men Cap Day Off With 69-55 Victory
Roanoke Women vs. Washington & Lee Box Score
SALEM, VA--The Roanoke College men’s and women’s basketball teams both came away with victories over the Washington & Lee Generals on Saturday night. The RC women defeated the Generals for the 12th straight time, this a 66-49 victory in Salem. The victory moved the Maroons’ record to 16-6, 13-5 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, while W&L fell to 12-10, 9-9. The Roanoke College men’s basketball team capped the night off with a 69-55 win over the Generals. The Maroons, currently ranked 21st in the nation, improve to 19-4 on the year, 14-3 in the conference. W&L is now 7-14, 5-11. Roanoke Women 66, Washington & Lee 49
The Maroons held the Generals to just 17 first half points in winning their 12th game all-time over W&L. Roanoke now owns a 12-0 lead in the series that began with the 1994-95 season. The Maroons allowed W&L to shoot just 35.7 percent from the field in the game, just 30 percent in the first half.
Roanoke held the Generals off the scoreboard for the first 4:32 of the contest and pushed their lead out to 10 points with 8:42 left in the contest. With just 5:55 remaining in the first half, Washington & Lee had managed to score just nine points and found themselves trailing, 23-9. Roanoke was able to extend the lead to as many as 22 points in the half, before W&L scored the final eight points to trim the lead to 14 (31-17) as it went into the half.
The second half was much closer, Roanoke outscoring the Generals, 35-32, but the large first half deficit was too much for W&L to fight back from. Washington & Lee was unable to trim the lead below 16 points.
Cheryl Rhodes (Roanoke, VA/Cave Spring) led all scorers in the contest, marking 13 points in the contest on 6-of-13 shooting. The senior forward added seven rebounds and three assists. Crystal Barrett (Roanoke, VA/Northside) continued her outstanding play in the paint, scoring 10 points and grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds. The Roanoke defense forced 27 W&L turnovers in the game.
Leslie Fischbeck (Pittsburgh, PA/Woodland Hills) led the Generals with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Jessica Mentz (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) added 10 points. Fischbeck also had four blocked shots in the contest.
The Maroons play their last two regular season games at home, hosting Emory & Henry on Tuesday night and Hollins on Thursday evening. Both games start at 7:00.
Roanoke Men 69, Washington & Lee 55
Brad Dunleavy (Roanoke, VA/William Fleming) and Colby Leftwich (Roanoke, VA/Patrick Henry) each scored 17 points in Roanoke’s 11th consecutive victory over Washington & Lee. The game also marked the return of junior forward Jason Strickland (Charlottesville, VA/Covenant) who had missed the previous five games after undergoing knee surgery.
Neither team was ‘on’ in the first half, both shooting lower than 30 percent from the field. At the half, the Maroons held a slim 20-19 lead. The Maroons shot 20 percent in the opening half, Washington & Lee 27.8 percent. Roanoke held as much as a eight point lead in the half. The Generals went on a 9-2 run to end the half to close to within one point.
Two second half spurts gave Roanoke a lead that the Generals could not fight back from. From the 12:29 mark until the 10:08 mark, the Maroons went on an 11-point run to push the lead to 13 points. W&L cut the gap to nine points, but the Maroons responded with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to put the game out of reach.
In his return after going down with an injury against Emory & Henry on January 26th, Strickland scored just two points but also had two rebounds and a team-high three steal. He shared the steals lead with both Dunleavy and junior guard Ben Halterman (Fort Defiance, VA/Fort Defiance), who also had 12 points and three rebounds.
Toussaint Crawford (Laurel, MD/St. Vincent Palloti) scored 14 points for the Generals in a reserve role, with Ryan Small (Dallas, TX/Highland Park) chipped in 11 markers.
The Maroons play their final regular season game on Monday night in Greensboro, NC as the re entertained by Guilford College at 7:00 pm.