Game 9 • W&L (2-6, 1-1) at No. 8 Randolph-Macon (8-0, 2-0) • January 3, 2004 • 2:00 pm

Game 10 • W&L (2-6, 1-1) at No. 26 Virginia Wesleyan (7-0, 1-0) • January 4, 2004 • 2:00 pm

THE SERIES':
W&L and Randolph-Macon will be meeting for the 62nd time with the Yellow Jackets holding a 49-12 advantage in the all-time series. R-MC has won each of the last 35 meetings dating back to Feb. 9, 1977 when the Generals defeated the Yellow Jackets, 75-73, in Lexington, Va. W&L and Virginia Wesleyan will be meeting for the 33rd time with the Marlins holding a 22-10 advantage in the all-time series. The Marlins have won each of the last three contests, including a 71-49 win in the final meeting last season.

LAST MEETING WITH RANDOLPH-MACON:
Randolph-Macon assumed a sizeable lead early and held on for a 71-53 win over W&L in the quarterfinal round of the ODAC men’s basketball tournament. The top-seeded Yellow Jackets scored the first five points of the game before guard Mike Stuart connected from behind the arc with 14:49 left to get the Generals on the board. R-MC then scored the next 17 points and carried a 31-12 advantage into the locker room at halftime. The Yellow Jackets forced 17 Generals’ turnovers and held them to 37.2 percent shooting for the afternoon (16-of-43), while committing just 10 giveaways and displaying 48.2 percent marksmanship (27-of-56) themselves. Senior forward Jared Mills (12 points), junior forward Kurt Bergmann (12 points) and senior guard Ryan Sloper (10 points) were the leading scorers for the Yellow Jackets. Guard Ian McClure scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Generals. Forward Ryan Flynn was the only other W&L player to reach double figures, finishing with 12 points.

LAST MEETING WITH VIRGINIA WESLEYAN:
The Washington and Lee men’s basketball team fell, 71-49, to Virginia Wesleyan in Norfolk, Va. Trailing 19-16 with 7:51 to play in the first half, the Generals were outscored by nine (12-3) over the remainder of the half as Virginia Wesleyan opened up a 31-19 halftime advantage. W&L mounted a second-half comeback, cutting the Marlins’ lead to five (37-32) with 14:49 remaining. However, VWC doubled the Generals’ production for the rest of the game, outscoring them 34-17 to provide the final margin. David Doino was the lone member of the Marlins to reach double figures, posting game-highs of 27 points and 10 rebounds. W&L was led by forward David Will, who tallied 16 points. Guard Mike Stuart finished with nine points, and senior forward Scott Hettermann added eight points and five boards.

UP NEXT:
Following the two-game swing, W&L will travel to Roanoke next Saturday for a 7:00 pm contest.

LAST TIME OUT:
The Washington and Lee men’s basketball team recovered from a 30-19 halftime deficit to put a scare into 17th-ranked Trinity (Conn.) College, falling 49-48 to the Bantams on Tuesday evening at the Warner Center. The Generals shot just 24.1 percent (7-29) in the first stanza, but recovered to shoot 43.5 percent (10-23) in the second half. Down 37-24 with 14:04 remaining in the game, W&L went on a 12-1 run over the next 4:37 to pull within one point (39-38) with 9:27 to play. Trinity (8-0) would push back to a five-point advantage at 47-42 with 3:45 remaining, but the Generals would again cut to a one-point contest on a layup by sophomore forward Ryan Flynn with 49 seconds remaining. Following a missed three-pointer by Trinity senior guard Shaun Smyth with 13 seconds left, W&L freshman point guard Chris Halkitis got an open look from behind the arc but could not hit. Flynn grabbed the rebound, but his five-footer at the buzzer fell short and Trinity walked away with the win. Halkitis led the Generals with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range. His only miss of the second half occurred on the final possession. Sophomore forward David Will and junior guard Mike Stuart both added six points. Trinity was paced by sophomore forward Tyler Rhoten, who tallied a game-high 21 points and six rebounds. Freshman forward Robert Taylor posted eight points and nine rebounds, while junior guard John Halas added eight points and seven boards.

SCOUTING RANDOLPH-MACON:
Randolph-Macon is 8-0 overall, 2-0 in the ODAC following an 80-74 win over John Carroll on Tuesday evening in Ashland, Va. The eighth-ranked Yellow Jackets placed five players in double-figures led by junior guard Justin Moyer, who tallied 17 points. Senior forward Jim Silcox notched 13 points followed by sophomore forward Justin Wansley (12 pts.), senior guard Buck Poropatich (11 pts.) and freshman guard Scott Sutherland (11 pts.). Senior forward Kurt Bergmann grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for R-MC which shot 52.9 percent from the field. On the season, Macon is paced by Bergmann, who averages 14.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. Wansley averages 11.4 points and 5.6 boards per contest, while senior guard Ryan Stein and sophomore guard Patrick Gill both contribute 6.4 points per outing. As a team, the Yellow Jackets shoot 51.1 percent from the floor, 43.5 percent from three-point range and 66.9 percent from the foul line. They also hold a +8.3 rebounding advantage and are winning by an average of 18.5 points per game.

SCOUTING VIRGINIA WESLEYAN:
Virginia Wesleyan is 7-0 overall, 1-0 in the ODAC after defeating Gallaudet on Dec. 17 by a 77-35 count. Freshman forward Brandon Adair led the Marlins with 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor. Senior forward David Doino added 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the contest. VWC will be playing its first game since the holiday break against Roanoke on Jan. 3 before taking on the Generals on Jan. 4. On the season, the 26th-ranked Marlins are led by Doino, who averages 14.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He is shooting 66.7 percent (14-21) from three-point range. Adair is contributing 14.3 points on 62.3 percent shooting from the floor. He also averages 8.0 rebounds per game. Junior forward Peter Warren (11.9 ppg.) and sophomore guard Marques Fitch (10.7 ppg.) round out VWC's double-figure scorers for the season. As a team, the Marlins shoot 45.3 percent from the floor, 40.3 percent from beyond the arc and 74.8 percent from the foul line. They hold a +16.7 scoring margin on the season.

THE HEAD GENERAL:
Adam Hutchinson (Amherst '93) is in his first season as the head coach at Washington and Lee. Hutchinson came to W&L from Case Western Reserve University, where he posted a 14-36 record in two seasons. Hutchinson was in the process of turning around the program after two solid recruiting classes. Hutchinson also served as the head coach at Steven's Tech for two seasons and claims a 34-73 (.318) overall record in five seasons as a head coach. Hutchinson is assisted by Ryan Kadlubowski (Rochester '03) and Curtis Buxton. Randolph-Macon is led by fifth-year Head Coach Mike Rhodes (Lebanon Valley '95), who is 89-30 (.748) overall with the Yellow Jackets. His 2002-03 squad went 28-2 overall. Virginia Wesleyan is coached by fourth-year mentor David Macedo (Wilkes '96), who is 57-28 (.671) overall with the Marlins. Macedo led VWC to an 18-9 overall mark last season.

KEEP EM' UNDER 60:
Defense does win games as evidenced by W&L's record in low-scoring games. During the last seven seasons, W&L is 30-12 (.714) when allowing its opponent 59 points or less, 2-1 this season. The Generals loss to Trinity on Tuesday was its first when allowing less than 59 points since a 57-48 setback against Roanoke on Jan. 6, 2001.

STRONG START = STRONG FINISH:
A quick start has been imperative to the Generals winning games. Over the past six years, W&L is 26-12 (.684) when leading at the half. During that same stretch, W&L has won a total of 37 games, meaning that W&L has led at the break in just over 70 percent of its wins during the last six years. However, W&L's two wins this season both came when trailing at the half.

THREE MAN:
Junior guard Mike Stuart has proven to be a threat from beyond the arc, hitting 34-of-96 attempts (.354) last season. Stuart ranks 11th on the career three-pointer makes list (76) and on the career attempts list (230). Stuart has struggled from behind the arc in the early going in 2003-04, hitting just 8-for-32 (.250) from three this season.

DROPPIN' DIMES:
Senior point guard Michael Denbow has been known for dropping dimes during his career, totaling 224 assists in 80 career games, an average of 2.8 assists per game. He can climb into the Top 5 in W&L history in career assists with 24 more dimes. Denbow is averaging 3.4 assists per game this season and claims 16 assists and just five turnovers in his last four contests. For the season, he claims a 2.1-1 assist-turnover ratio, the best of his career. W&L is 8-8 (.500) all-time when Denbow records five or more assists in a game.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY:
Sophomore forward David Will was the Generals' top scoring freshman last season, averaging 7.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per contest. Through eight games this season, Will is second on the team in scoring with 9.1 points per game. He struggled from the floor against Trinity, hitting just 2-of-11 shots in dropping his field goal percentage to 42.9 percent (33-77) for the season. His 77 shots lead the team while his 3.9 rebounds are second among the Generals.

DEAD-EYE:
Freshman guard Chris Halkitis has been a "dead-eye" shooter from three-point range in his rookie season. Halkitis has hit a team-best 16 three-point field goals and is shooting 51.6 percent (16-31) from beyond the arc. He has at-least one three-pointer in each of the last six contests and is averaging 2.0 three's made per game this season. Take away a 1-of-5 performance from behind the arc against Bridgewater on Dec. 10 and Halkitis would be shooting 57.7 percent from behind 19 feet, 9 inches.

SIMPLY JONES:
There's nothing flashy about Hamill Jones' name nor his game. However, keeping things simple have led Jones to a team-best .607 shooting percentage (17-28). Jones also holds the school's top single-game shooting performance, a 15-of-16 night against Emory & Henry on Jan. 23, 2002. Jones tallied a career-high 32 points that evening. Jones is currently averaging 5.1 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.

AT THE CHARITY STRIPE:
W&L is shooting 70.2 percent from the foul line this season, but has gone to the line just 104 times in eight games. On the flip side, W&L's opponents have hit just 64.4 percent of their charity tosses, but have shot 149 free throws. All told, the Generals' opponents have hit nearly as many free throws (94) as W&L has attempted (104) this season.

BRUTAL STRETCH...:
W&L has gone through a brutal stretch of games already and will continue to do so through next week. The Generals have already played three teams ranked in the Top 20 in Franklin & Marshall (19th), Catholic (14th) and Trinity (17th) and will now play eighth-ranked Randolph-Macon and 26th-ranked Virginia Wesleyan. In addition, W&L played Division I Citadel. As of a Jan. 10 game against Roanoke, W&L will have played eight of its first 11 games on the road. To date, W&L's seven Division III opponents have a 33-19 overall record.

BUT HELP IS ON THE WAY:
W&L's rough early start will help as the year progresses, however. Playing tough early season opponents can only strenthen the Generals for a the conference stretch run which includes 10 of the final 14 games at home, including five-straight home games from Jan. 24 until Feb. 4.

-- GENERALS --