WINCHESTER, Va. – Visiting Roanoke College led throughout in an 87-78 ODAC men's basketball victory over Shenandoah University Wednesday evening.
Roanoke (8-12, 3-8 ODAC) scored the first five points of the game and 18 of the initial 25 on its way to its 18th win in 21 lifetime meetings with SU (2-18, 1-10).
The Hornets made matters interesting thanks to an 18-8 run over a span of 4:16 that cut the RC lead to just one, 28-27, with 6:03 to play in the first.
Sophomore Aaron Patterson, who scored 19 points and brought the Shingleton Gymnasium to its feet with a second half alley-oop dunk, brought SU to that one-point deficit by canning three straight from the line at that 6:03 mark.
Unfortunately for the home crowd, the Maroons answered with a 15-0 run over the next 4:01 to expand their lead to 43-27 with 1:57 remaining and were never seriously threatened again.
SU was able to cut the deficit to seven points on three second half occasions, the last following an Xavier Alston layup with 14 seconds left, but could not complete the comeback.
Roanoke's biggest lead was 15 points, which occurred following a pair of Julian Ramirez free throws at the 11:15 mark.
Ramirez had a game-high 25 points for the victors.
The Maroons, led by Ramirez, saw four of five starters score in double figures. Daniel Eacho backed up Ramirez with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
RC held a 44-34 advantage on the glass.
Malcolm Clark had 24 points, Alston 11 and Antwan Pittman 11 to also give SU four double-digit scorers.
Shenandoah is back in action on Saturday at 2 p.m. in a Senior Day contest against Guilford. Alston and Eli McEathron will be honored prior to the contest.
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