Sports Roundup: Monday, Feb. 8

- Bridgewater rallies to knock off Randolph
- VMI rally falls short
- Former Keydet named D-League all-star

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Bridgewater rallies to knock off Randolph: Bridgewater College erased a 10-point second-half deficit Sunday afternoon to defeat Randolph College, 61-57, in ODAC men’s basketball action.

With 2:02 left in the game, Segar Jordan worked free for a layup off an assist from Cody Griffith to give the Eagles a one-point 52-51 lead.

Following a Randolph turnover, Jordan scored again, this time following an offensive rebound to give BC a three-point advantage, 54-51, with 1:15 left to play.

The WildCats answered with a layup by Jason Rutschman to pull with one with 1:00 remaining, but the Eagles responded when Jake Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer with just 31 seconds left, giving BC a four-point lead.

Randolph’s Derrick Woods-Morrow scored to cut the lead to two, but Dominic Trawick hit two free throws with 22 seconds left to push the margin back to four, 59-55.

Colton Hunt then scored for the WildCats but BC’s Drew Maynard scored on a layup with four seconds left to clinch the victory for the Eagles.

Trawick led the Eagles with 24 points. Jordan scored 13 and Johnson added 10. Woods-Morrow led Randolph with a double-double finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

The Eagles took care of the basketball Sunday, turning the ball over just 12 times. Point guards Maynard and Griffith each finished with four assists.

The Eagles are now 8-10 overall and 6-6 in the ODAC. Randolph is 9-12 overall and 3-9 in the conference.

VMI rally falls short: Sophomore guard Reggie Middleton sank one of two free throws with 2.0 seconds left to quell a furious VMI rally and send Winthrop to an 87-83 win over the Keydets Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 1,653 at Cameron Hall.

The Eagles were cruising to their fifth consecutive win with over three minutes left in regulation only to see the Keydets produce a 20-6 spurt down the stretch to make things interesting.

Winthrop senior center Andy Buechert’s dunk gave Winthrop its largest lead of the game, 79-63, with 3:33 left, but he was tagged with a technical foul for grabbing the rim. That commenced the VMI rally, started by junior guard Austin Kenon’s conversion of the two technical free throws.

The Keydets made it a one-possession game when Kenon converted a driving layup with 2.8 seconds left to pull VMI within 86-83. Sophomore forward Michael Sparks fouled Middleton on the inbound with 2.0 remaining, setting up the game-clinching free throw.

The Eagles (13-10, 9-4 Big South Conference) won for the eighth time in the last nine contests. The five-game win streak is Winthrop’s longest of the year.

VMI fell to 8-15, 3-10 in its next-to-last home game of the year.

Winthrop had three players produce double-double games on the afternoon. Middleton led the way with 22 points and 10 rebounds, followed by sophomore center Matt Morgan with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and senior forward Mantoris Robinson with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Robinson tallied all his points after halftime.

VMI sophomore guard Keith Gabriel led VMI in scoring with 21 points including three three-pointers. Kenon added 16 points and nailed eight-of-nine free throws from the charity stripe, but was limited to just six minutes of action in the first half after picking up two fouls before the first media timeout.

2008 Waynesboro High School graduate Nick Gore scored two points in 14 minutes off the bench for VMI.

Former Keydet named D-League all-star: Reggie Williams, the Keydets’ all-time leading scorer and 2008 graduate of VMI, has been named to the NBA Development League Eastern Conference All-Star Team, it was announced Feb. 2 by the league office.

The 2010 NBA D-League All-Star Game will be played in Dallas on Saturday, Feb. 13 at NBA All-Star Jam Session presented by adidas. The game will tip off at 3 p.m. ET on Jam Session’s Center Court and will be shown live on NBA TV.

Williams, who is in his first season in the NBA D-League playing with the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Skyforce, currently ranks third in the league in scoring with 26.4 ppg. He is also averaging 5.8 rpg, 3.2 apg and 1.4 spg while shooting 56.8 percent from the field, 82.1 percent from the charity stripe and 38.9 percent from the 3-point line. He has scored 30+ points 10 times this season including three 43-point outings, tied for the second-most points scored in the NBA D-League this season.

Twenty of the NBA D-League’s top prospects were selected to be All-Stars by a combination of fan balloting on nba.com/dleague and voting by the league’s 16 head coaches.

In addition, Williams will also participate in the NBA Development League Dream Factory Friday Night presented by Haier. Williams will be a participant in the Shooting Stars competition, which will feature players broken up into four teams of three shooting from six numbered shooting locations of increasing difficulty, with each team attempting to make all shots in numeric order in the fastest time.

The Dream Factory Friday Night is an innovative skills competition modeled after the popular NBA All-Star Saturday Night, and will be held on Center Court at NBA Jam Session presented by adidas on Friday, Feb. 12, at 10:00 p.m. ET, and will stream live on NBA.com from 10-11p.m. ET. Along with the Haier Shooting Starts, other competitions include a Slam Dunk competition and a Three-Point shootout.

In December, Williams was named NBA Development League Performer of the Week for games played during the week after averaging 26.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting 65 percent in back-to-back games.