LEXINGTON, Va. — The Washington and Lee men's basketball team went on a 14-3 run late in the second half, and senior forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) totaled 27 points and 10 rebounds, as W&L defeated Randolph-Macon, 84-76, on Saturday at the Warner Center in the final game of the regular season for both teams.

The Generals (16-9, 11-5 ODAC) held a 38-32 lead at halftime, but it only took the Yellow Jackets (17-7, 12-4 ODAC) four minutes into the second half to erase the deficit and even the score at 42-42 by the 16:04 mark. Over the next eight minutes, neither team held a lead larger than four points, and following a three-pointer by junior forward Luke Neeley with 7:48 to go in the game, the teams were knotted at 63-63.

Junior guard Devin Kearns (Cibolo, Texas/Samuel Clemens) gave the Blue and White a two-point edge (65-63) with a jumper on the team's next offensive trip. Following a made free throw for each team, Murtha notched a layup, and then sophomore guard Kevin Dennin (Severna Park, Md./Severn School) splashed a triple to extend the W&L lead to 71-64 with 6:01 left in the contest.

Junior guard Grayson Midulla dropped in a layup to temporarily halt the Generals' run, but then four straight points by Murtha stretched the Blue and White's advantage to 75-66 at the 4:49 mark.

With the ball being put into play in front of the R-MC bench with just over four minutes to play, first-year forward Curtis Mitchell (Chevy Chase, Md./Georgetown Prep) swiped the inbounds pass near the timeline, and then quickly passed to junior forward Nicholas George (Charleston, W. Va./Charleston Catholic) running down the court. With no defender in front of him, George rose up for a two-handed slam to effectively put the game away for W&L with 4:01 left on the clock. R-MC pulled to no closer than six the rest of the way, as the Generals hung on for the victory.

With Murtha's 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, he moved to third on W&L all-time scoring list. Murtha now has 1,821 points in 106 games. He passed Mel Cartwright '70 who finished his career with 1,800 points.

Junior forward Roy McMillan (Raleigh, N.C./Broughton) totaled 14 points and seven rebounds on 6-of-7 from the field. George notched 14 points and six rebounds, and Dennin came off the bench to tally 10 points, three assists and two rebounds.

The Generals shot 55.4 percent (31-of-56) from the floor, and held R-MC to just 43.8 percent (28-of-64) shooting.

Midulla led the Yellow Jackets with 18 points and six rebounds on 7-of-12 from the floor. Junior forward Darryl Williams added 15 points.

The Generals have earned the third seed in the ODAC Tournament and will receive a bye to the quarterfinals in Salem next weekend. W&L will play on Friday at 8:00 pm. This is the first time in program history the team has received a bye straight to the quarterfinals since the league added the first round games for 2008-09 season. This also marked the final W&L men's basketball game in the Warner Center.

W&L will take on the winner of sixth-seeded Guilford and 11th-seeded Shenandoah. The Quakers and the Hornets play on Tuesday in Greensboro, with the time still to be determined.

-- www.generalssports.com --