VIRGINIA BEACH, VA --  Randolph-Macon held Virginia Wesleyan to 29% shooting on the night as the Yellow Jackets topped the Marlins 68-65 Wednesday evening in Virginia Beach.

With four wins in a row, R-MC improves to 12-8 overall and 7-4 in the league.  The Marlins who are receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com poll, drop to 13-6 and 9-2 in league play.   Wednesday marked the seventh straight meeting between the two teams to be decided by three points or fewer.

R-MC got 15 points and nine rebounds from Andre Simon.  Lamar Giggetts added 14 points and eight boards, while Connor Sullivan had 12 points.  Akeem Holmes came off the bench to snare 10 rebounds for the Jackets.

Randolph-Macon made 26-of-56 (46.4%) shots on the night.  VWC was 20-of-67 from the floor.  The Marlins were aided by 34 trips to the foul line, converting 22 of those chances.   

Randolph-Macon started out hot, connecting on six of its first nine shots.  Conversely, VWC was only able to drain two of its first 12 chances at the outset.

R-MC took a 15-9 lead following a layup by Sullivan with just under 10 minutes to go in the opening half. 

VWC went on a 12-5 run, taking its first lead of the contest when Tre Ford drained a jumper with 4:18 to play.

With R-MC leading by three points late in the half, Art Crew would beat the shot clock with a three-pointer that tied the game at 29-29 with 27 seconds remaining.

The game remained tight to start the second stanza before a 10-5 spurt by the Marlins pushed their lead to seven points at 49-42 with 13:14 to go in the game.

Randolph-Macon rallied, scoring 15 of the next 20 points, taking a 57-54 lead following a free-throw by Simon with 6:52 to go.

With R-MC leading 65-62, the Marlins' DJ Woodmore missed a jumper that would have pulled VWC within one.  The ball was rebounded by Holmes and Marcus Badger was fouled on the other end of the floor with 26.5 seconds remaining. Badger connected on the back end of the two shots to give R-MC a four point lead. 

On Virginia Wesleyan's ensuing possession, Woodmore's initial shot attempt was blocked by Giggettts, only to have Woodmore collect his own rebound and lay it in to make it 66-64 with 19.3 seconds left.

Chris Hamilton made one-of-two free-throws at the other end to push the Jackets lead to 67-64.

Ford missed the front end of two shots from the charity stripe on VWC's next possession, but made the second to make it 67-65 with nine seconds to play.

Randolph-Macon turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and Wooodmore had a chance at a go-ahead three-pointer, but his shot missed, Giggetts grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

Giggetts made one free-throw, missed the second, forcing a desperation heave by VWC that was off the mark as time expired.

Randolph-Macon returns to action on Saturday when it travels to Lynchburg for a 2:00 p.m. ODAC game.

www.rmcathletics.com