For the first time since the 2014-2015 season, the Marlins Men’s Basketball team earned its way to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament.
After a successful regular season, the Marlins made it to the semi-finals of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) tournament as the sixth seed. They won their quarterfinal game of the tournament, beating the number five nationally ranked Guilford College 67-60. The team lost the semifinal game to the Tigers of Hampden-Sydney College, who are ranked number one nationally, 63-52. Leading that game was first-year Paul Anderson with 10 points and Seargeant with 9 points.
After a season spent mostly ranked in the top 25 nationally, on Monday, Feb. 26, the team found out they would be playing Swarthmore College in Hartford, Connecticut for the first round of the NCAA Tournament. After not scoring until seven minutes into the first half, the Marlins were down 37-19 at halftime. The Marlins crawled back in the second half to outscore the Phoenixes 40-30, but ultimately their comeback came up short as they lost 67-59. With that, their season comes to an end.
Junior Waylo Wilson who scored 14 points for the Marlins against Swarthmore is proud of how the team overcame adversity earlier in the season. “The experience of having the chance to play in our first ever NCAA tournament was beyond exciting. Having an opportunity to be in a position that our program hasn’t been in for about eight years was something that meant a lot to all of us,” Wilson said.
The Marlins finished their season 19-9, 9-7 in conference play and were one of four ODAC teams to make the NCAA tournament.
By: Colette Kearney
cmkearney@vwu.edu