ASHLAND, VA - No. 3 Randolph-Macon earned a hard fought, 54-48, ODAC road win at Randolph on Saturday afternoon, improving the Jackets record to 15-2 overall and 6-2 in the league.  The WildCats fall to 9-9 and 3-6 in the ODAC.

Eric Pugh tied for a game-high 15 points on the afternoon, including seven points from the charity stripe in the final 1:05 to seal the win for R-MC.  Danny Jones had 12 points off the bench for Randolph-Macon as well.  Jones and Lamar Giggetts each had a game-high eight rebounds to help Randolph-Macon to a 36-30 edge on the glass.

Jason Rutschman led Randolph with 15 points on the afternoon, while Derrick Woods-Morrow had nine in a losing effort for the WildCats, who were held to just 36% shooting on the day by the R-MC defense.

A low scoring first half saw R-MC take a 14-5 lead with 12:33 to play when a Giggetts bucket gave the Jackets a nine-point advantage. 

The WildCats managed to get back into the game by scoring 15 of the next 22 points, cutting the R-MC advantage to one on a Rutschman layup with 28 seconds to go. 

R-MC's Brandon Braxton sent the Yellow Jackets to the locker room up 23-20 after converting a bucket with just three seconds on the clock.

The game remained close in the opening minutes of the second stanza with Randolph taking a 28-27 lead on a basket by Colton Hunt with 14:06 to play in the game. 

R-MC responded with a 13-3 run, capped by a Jordan Brown dunk that made the score 40-30 in favor of the Jackets with just over eight minutes to play.   The Yellow Jackets maintained the lead and were able to push their advantage to 47-35 on an old fashion three-point play Brown with 3:29 to go in the contest.

Randolph attempted to mount a comeback, cutting the lead to four with 46 seconds to play, but Pugh iced the game four makes from the free-throw line.

Randolph-Macon will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Washington and Lee at 7:00 p.m.

-Yellow Jackets-