Barrett stepped up to the line, called out a defensive play to her teammates, and calmly made it all nylon on both free throws to give the Marlins a 70-67 lead. Randolph-Macon could not find an open look in the final seconds and got off an off-balance three-point attempt that was far off the mark as time expired.
The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Yellow Jackets for VWC, which won against perennial Old Dominion Athletic Conference power R-MC for the first time since 2002.
But, it was anything but pretty. The Marlins (5-2, 3-1) turned the ball over a season-high 34 times, the majority unpressured throws out-of-bounds or to Jacket defenders. R-MC (3-2, 1-2) just took advantage of what it was given and outscored the Marlins 27-17 off turnovers.
Some of those miscues helped R-MC overcome a 34-31 halftime deficit, as the Jackets used a 9-0 scoring run led by Renee Stein, Marta Merkel and Molly Ariail to open up a 49-44 lead with 14:21 remaining to be played.
A Jess Shifflett jumper gave the Jackets their largest lead at 53-47, before VWC started to answer. Andrea Ushinski, Nicole Thurston and Tonia Jones sparked an 8-2 VWC run that tied the game at 55-all and started a back-and-forth battle for the remaining seven minutes.
There were five lead changes in that time, with VWC taking the fifth and final on a pair of Thurston free throws with 2:16 to play.
VWC tempered the turnover situation by shooting 52.1% for the game and dominating on the backboards, 37-23. R-MC shot 42.4% from the field. The Marlins also hit 9-of-17 three-pointers, led by senior Michelle Dove with five.
Dove led the Marlins with 15 points, followed by Ushinski with 13, Barrett with 12 and Thurston with 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Ariail led R-MC with17 points, Salem Shaffer tallied 11 and Lindsay Riesbeck had 10. Amanda Hiltunen recorded six steals.