ASHLAND, Va. — A late rally by the Washington and Lee men's basketball team came up short on Saturday, as Randolph-Macon defeated W&L, 65-57, at Crenshaw Gymnasium.

The Generals (8-11, 4-6 ODAC) held a one-point lead, 28-27, at halftime, but the Yellow Jackets (14-5, 10-0 ODAC) opened the second on a 16-7 run to take a 43-35 advantage with 13:57 left in the contest. A free throw by junior forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) and two more by senior guard Andy Kleinlein (Chesterfield, Mo./Chaminade College Prep) brought the Blue and White to within five (43-38), but Randolph-Macon answered with a 7-2 spurt to push the margin to 12, 52-40, at the 10:06 mark.

R-MC continued to balloon the lead, and a layup sophomore forward Darryl Williams with 6:02 remaining extended the margin to 60-43. W&L responded with back-to-back layups by sophomore guard Devin Kearns (Cibolo, Texas/Samuel Clemens) and Murtha to trim the deficit to 13 (60-47) with 4:26 on the clock. Kleinlein and Murtha then sandwiched a pair of layups around a free throw by sophomore forward Jon Newell to bring the Generals to within 10 (61-51) at the 1:50 mark.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Kleinlein cut the gap to four, 61-57, with 29 seconds left in the game, but R-MC made four free throws, while W&L missed a shot and committed a turnover, to reach the final margin.   

Kearns led the Blue and White with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, making 9-of-18 shots from the field. Kleinlein added 16 points, and Murtha notched his ninth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Senior forward Michael Taylor led the Yellow Jackets with 12 points, while junior forward Daniel Noe had 10 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore forward Montese Adams came off the bench to total 10 points and seven rebounds.

R-MC outscored W&L in bench points, 36-6. The Blue and White shot 43.1 percent (22-of-51) from the field, while the Yellow Jackets hit 40.3 percent (25-of-62) of its shots from the floor.

The Generals return to action on Wednesday, when they play at Shenandoah at 7:00 pm.

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