Roanoke College was a participant in the Governor’s Challenge Basketball Tournament located in Salisbury, Maryland. They played back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday and were able to come away with one win and one loss. This gave them an impressive 4.1 record to start off the basketball season. Another impressive factoid is that the Maroons have scored over 70 points in every game this season, consistently putting up solid offensive performances.
Roanoke’s first game of the tournament came against the formidable Wesleyan University. Wesleyan University is ranked in the NCAA Division III’s top 25 at the moment and proved to be challenging for the Maroons to handle. ‘Noke got off to a flaming hot start scoring 50 points in the first half alone securing a double-digit lead at halftime. Roanoke, in fact, led by as many as 22 in the first half. Unfortunately, they were unable to hold off the Cardinals and fell by a score of 84-79. Roanoke had some very impressive individual performances as Marcus Morgan excelled in multiple areas recording 13 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Patrick Clevenger led the team in scoring putting up 15 points in 40 minutes of action. The majority of the rotation was able to gather some points as Roanoke had 8 players score 5 or more points. Although Roanoke was very solid from the field (making 49.1%) and the free throw line (76.2%) they struggled some in the three-point department making only 7 of 24.
The Maroons, however, were able to bounce back quickly and effectively in the following game as they were able to obtain their fourth victory of the season beating the tournament hosts, Salisbury University 79-63. This was in large part due to a masterful performance from guard Jackson Bell who scored a career high 27 points. He also proved to be a meaningful contributor elsewhere totaling six rebounds and recording both a block and a steal. Caleb Franze put up a great stat line as well scoring 19 and achieving three assists. Marcus Morgan also continued to be an important piece recording an impressive seven assists for the second game in a row. Roanoke got off to a giant lead in this game and never really looked back. Early in the second half Roanoke led by 31 and Salisbury was unable to even threaten Roanoke’s formidable team. The Maroons did an excellent job with three-point shots in this game making an impressive 55% of them.
After the tournament Roanoke College finds themselves ranked as the #10 team in the country according to the official D3 hoops website putting them an excellent spot heading into the rest of the season.
Ruben Krishna
Staff Reporter
