Resilient men's basketball prepares for ODACs

The NCAA Division III tournament is just around the corner, and the Marlins of Virginia Wesleyan’s men’s basketball team have situated themselves in a desirable situation for the seeding process. With three regular season games remaining, the Marlins are sitting pretty as they remain in a tie for second place with Bridgewater College, who they will face on Feb 12.

“Every game is a big game this time of the year,” said fifth year Head Coach Dave Macedo, who currently obtains an impressive 70-36 record at VWC.

The team is looking to build some positive momentum as they head into the tournament, winning five out of its last six games and improving its conference record to 10-5.

The one loss that cut deep into the Marlins came against the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon College. The team that was embarrassed on last week’s Top Ten Plays on SportsCenter must have had some unfinished business to tend to because they stung the Marlins in a heartbreaking loss. After scoring over 100 points against Emory & Henry College just a week prior, the rim seemed to be a little smaller against Randolph-Macon, as the Marlins shot just 34% from the field. Despite trailing by 14 points with just five minutes left in the game, Senior Peter Warren, and first year players D’ Juan Tucker, and Ton Ton Balenga rallied the team to a 22-10 run. However, the clock was the Marlin’s foe and they fell 72-68. Balenga’s 23 points were not enough to take down the hive.

“You gotta credit Macon,” Macedo said. “They were the more physical basketball team. They controlled the inside post the whole game. While they were making easy lay-ups inside, we were missing fade away jumpers.”

Fortunately for the Marlins, this was not a tournament game, so look for them to learn from this loss and use it to be better prepared for the games to come.

Aside from Bridgewater the last regular season game is at Eastern Mennonite University on Feb. 15. The two games are significant and play a huge role in the seeding for the big show.

“These next few games are extremely important for us,” Macedo said. “This is our chance to become a more consistent team before the tournament.”

While the coaches are tentative about overlooking these final regular season games, Macedo explained the differences in the preparation for the post-season action.

“We’re definitely going to throw in some new things,” he said. “It all comes down to execution and the guys on the bench. But in the end, defense and rebounding is what’s needed to win it all.”

Aside from that, commenting on the final games for two of the seniors, Macedo said, “Our two seniors, Bryan Wintermantel and Peter Warren, will both be taking on leadership roles. Peter is our X-factor, he needs to play well and he needs to play more.”

Following the conclusion of the regular season, the Marlins will travel to Salem, Va for the ODAC tournament that will start on Sat. Feb. 19.