Roanoke revenges Hampden-Sydney, wins 97–80

The Roanoke Maroons hand the Hampden-Sydney Tigers their sixth conference loss.

Saturday afternoon in the S. Douglas Fleet Gymnasium, the Hampden-Sydney Tigers (14–7, 6–6 ODAC) found themselves against a newly strategized team of Maroons (17–4, 9–3 ODAC) since their last matchup in January, where the Tigers won 100–92. Hampden-Sydney handed Roanoke their first conference loss earlier this season, but the tables turned when they met in the Tiger’s home gym.

Head coach Dee Vick said, “Last time they shot a lot of threes. Tonight they kind of played more of a dribble-drive offense and really drove it hard and either tried to score one-on-one or they tried to kick the basketball to their shooters.”

At first it looked as though the Tigers may get the season sweep over the Maroons as sophomore forward from Brazil, Guilherme Guimaraes, dunked the first points on the board, about one minute into the game. But it was clear that the Maroons weren’t playing easy when their consistent driving under the basket quickly got senior forward Mitch Owens two fouls, only a couple minutes later.

With 14:47 to go in the first period, Roanoke’s Cameron Smith took the lead with a layup and the Tigers never got it back. However, Guimaraes put up a solid 10 points with junior Jake Duncan and freshman Andrew Evans each adding five points in the first half.

Senior point guard Mike Murray, who is looking to break a program record in assists, came off the bench after being on injury reserve during practice due to a tweaked right ankle, that originally occurred earlier in the season, according to Hampden-Sydney sports information director, Davis Yake. Murray scored two points and had two assists in the first half.

They left the court at halftime with 40 total points, but gave up 52 points to the Maroons, as well as 11 turnovers. “…You can turn the ball over and get back defensively and still get stops. But what we’ve done is we’ve turned the ball over and its lead to their good offense, in fact, in the first half they had I think it was 14 points off our turnovers and that hurts,” reflected Vick.

Whereas teams like Hampden-Sydney play with three guards and two post players, Roanoke stretches the floor with five guards. To maintain a fast pace to their advantage, they circulate three to six men at a time. Vick referred to it as “unorthodox.” He stated, “We could play five guards, but what we wanted to play what we play and you know stick to what we do rather than adjust to them and it didn’t work, it didn’t work tonight…”

In the second half, the Maroons took full advantage. Six of the Maroon’s players reached double digits in their total points, while the Tigers still struggled to maintain possession. Duncan, the Tigers leading scorer, usually averages 45.4 percent for shots outside the arc, but barely shot at 25 percent in Saturday’s game.

Guimaraes said, “They just knocked down their shots and we didn’t…,” even though he left the court with a career-high of 20 points. Overall, Roanoke outshot Hampden-Sydney 53 percent to 39 percent.

For most of the second half, Hampden-Sydney trailed by ten or more points. In the final six minutes of the game it looked as though the Tigers had an opportunity to shrink the gap when a technical foul called on John Caldwell of the Maroons let Guimaraes and Evans shoot for four, but only one free-throw was made between the two of them. According the Guimaraes, the technical foul was whistled due to Caldwell “putting his hands inside his mouth” and “pulling forward” when he went for the layup.

The Maroons continued to lead until victory. Junior guard JaVonte Reddick and Owens put up a total of 11 points respectively, while Evans totaled 13 points and nine rebounds. Murray had six points and six assists, needing six more assists to break the record. Guimaraes led the team with 20 points, but had four turnovers. “When things don’t go well, think about the things I do well like run the court and play hard,” he said.

Coach Vick stated, “Decision-making is something you kind of earn by investing a lot in the game and playing the game a lot and so some of these young guys are getting the repetitions in practice and we hope that they’ll get more comfortable and more confident playing against pressure and hopefully they’ll make better decisions.”

Hampden-Sydney travels to ODAC conference leader, Virginia Wesleyan, Wednesday for a 7pm match.