HAMPDEN-SYDNEY, VA (February 18, 2009)�Hampden-Sydney put together a solid 40 minutes of basketball Wednesday night against archrival Randolph-Macon College.
But Justin Short's performance in the final 7:16 was just too costly for the Tigers.
Almost singlehandedly, the Yellow Jackets' senior floor general brought his team back from the doldrums, scoring 18 of his game-high 22 points in the final seven minutes of the game to help Randolph-Macon steal a 69-67 victory from Hampden-Sydney in front of a raucous crowd of 1,818 at S. Douglas Fleet Gymnasium.
Short, who came into the game second in the ODAC in scoring at 19.1 points-per-game, began his scoring spree with Hampden-Sydney leading 57-49 after a Ben Jessee (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) jumper with 7:32 remaining.
Short answered with a three-pointer to bring the Jackets within 57-52 at the 7:16 mark.
He then followed with a short jumper in the lane to cut the Tigers' lead to 58-56 one minute later and then hit four straight foul shots to cap an 11-1 Randolph-Macon run that gave the Jackets a 60-58 advantage with 3:52 remaining, their first lead since 4-3 at the 18:04 mark of the first half.
Hampden-Sydney (11-13, 6-9 ODAC) responded instantly with a cold-blooded 7-0 spurt fueled by five points from Jessee and a fast break pull-up from Shane Payne (Weston, FL/Sagemont) that staked the Tigers a 65-60 edge with 1:55 remaining.
But Short would not be denied, connected on clutch, back-to-back triples that reclaimed the lead for his squad, 66-65, at the 45 second mark.
A 3-for-4 effort from the line from Short sealed the Tigers' fate, and handed Randolph-Macon (20-5, 14-2 ODAC) its sixth consecutive win.
Hampden-Sydney was nearly unstoppable for the first 33 minutes, thanks in large part to the hot left hand of junior Turner King (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Catholic). King dissected the Yellow Jacket defense, scoring 11 first half points to help power Hampden-Sydney to a 32-31 advantage at the break.
After scoring nine points in 12 minutes of action in the second half, King was finally cooled off when he was hit with his fifth foul with 4:15 to play and the Tigers clinging to a 58-56 lead. King finished with a team-high 20 points.
Jessee (16 points, four rebounds) and Karlis Trops (Riga, Latvia/Charlotte Latin), who tallied 13 points and five rebounds, tried to keep Hampden-Sydney afloat, but Short took advantage of his nemeses' absence, carrying Randolph-Macon to the victory.
The statistics were eerily similar in the latest edition of The Oldest Small College Rivalry in the South. Hampden-Sydney held Randolph-Macon to 37 percent shooting for the game while shooting 40.4 percent itself, and made 20-of-31 free throws compared to the Yellow Jackets' 23-of-32 effort from the stripe.
But the one discrepancy proved costly to Hampden-Sydney; Randolph-Macon bruised the Tigers on the glass, outrebounding Hampden-Sydney 42-30 with the help of 17 offensive rebounds.
The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, February 21 when they travel to Virginia Beach, Virginia for a 2:00 pm contest with Virginia Wesleyan College in the final game of the regular season.
