WINCHESTER, Va. – Visiting Randolph College rallied for a 60-57 ODAC men's basketball victory over Shenandoah Saturday afternoon.
The Hornets (4-4, 1-1 ODAC) had a chance to tie at the buzzer, but freshman Jalyn Jarrett saw his running 22-footer bounce in an out as the horn sounded.
SU led 34-31 at the break only to see Randolph (3-5, 1-1) score the first four points of the second to take a 36-34 lead by the 18:08 mark.
The two teams, which were tied on one occasion and traded the lead seven times in the first 20 minutes, traded the lead two more times and were tied twice in the next 1:43 before the WildCats took the lead for good on a Ryan Fields jumper with 13:20 remaining.
Fields' bucket, one of a game-high five he had on the day, was the second basket in a what turned into an 11-0 run for the 'Cats.
Kaimonne Douglas snapped the scoring drought with a 3-pointer at 9:09 before Jalyn Jarrett canned one of his own 56 seconds later to cut the deficit to three, 47-44, with 8:13 left.
Trailing by seven, 56-49, Shenandoah began its final push on a pair of Malcolm Clark free throws at the 2:50 mark. Clark, who became the 18th member of the men's basketball 1000-point club on a 3-pointer with exactly one minute to play in the first, made the score 56-51 with his two successful free throws.
Dalon McHugh followed with a layup, and after Reid Jacoby hit a pair from the line for Randolph, Jonah Meredith sandwiched two free throws of his own around two more from McHugh.
Meredith's second free throw made the score 58-57 with 53 seconds remaining.
The two teams each missed field goal attempts in the waning moments before SU was forced to foul following Fields' defensive rebound of a Clark miss at the :03 mark.
Fields drained both of his free throws to extend the lead to three, and the Hornets inbounded to Jarrett with 2.4 seconds showing.
The freshman dashed up the floor and got an excellent look at the top of the key, but the bank shot just rimmed out after appearing to fall ½ down the cylinder.
Clark paced the hosts with 14 points and eight rebounds with McHugh adding 10 off the bench.
Jacoby and Fields both had 14 for the 'Cats with Colton Lee adding 12.
Randolph had a 40-34 rebounding advantage and shot 70 percent from the line to the Hornets 48 percent (12 of 25).
The WildCats made 7 of 8 free throws in the second half.
The men are back in action on Tuesday at 7 in a home non-league contest versus Ferrum.
Notes: Clark is the first SU men's player to score 1000 career points since Avery Green '14 on January 11, 2014 and the first Shenandoah basketball player to do so since Holly Chittenden on February 4, 2015.
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