In return, the Marlins gave the head coach his 101 st career victory, as they fa-la-la-la-laed their way to a 98-51 holiday victory over the visiting Builders of Newport News Apprentice School.
The victory capped the end of exams, the end of the fall semester and the end of the 2005 portion of the schedule for the Marlins, who will enter the 2006 slate with a 7-3 record and a five-game winning streak.
So, ‘twas a night to be happy for the home team as the Marlins sophomore TonTon Balenga (Newport News, Va./Warwick) drilled home a three-pointer to start the scoring 13 seconds into play, setting a pace that belonged to the Marlins the rest of the way. Apprentice (3-8), held to its lowest offensive output since a 77-44 loss in Wisconsin to Carthage College in 2002, never led, but kept the deficit to a single-digit for the first eight minutes.
But, once senior Marques Fitch (Virginia Beach, Va./Floyd E. Kellam) hit a triple to push the Virginia Wesleyan lead to 24-14 with 11:44 remaining in the first half, the Marlins maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way. His shot sparked a 15-4 run that created a 36-18 for Virginia Wesleyan, which outscored Apprentice 32-8 in the last eight minutes of the half to open up a commanding 53-22 lead at the break.
Adair led the decisive run with 11 points, while Fitch tallied nine, hitting a trio of triples. Six Marlins scored overall in the surge and 11 scored in the game. Junior Rodney Young (Chesapeake, Va./Norfolk Norview) led the balanced effort with 19 points, followed by Adair with 15, Fitch with 13 and sophomore Tyler Fantin (Virginia Beach, Va./Floyd E. Kellam) with 10.
The Marlins hit on nearly 54 percent from the field overall, and found the range from behind-the-arc, nailing nearly 65 percent for the game. VWC hit on 7-of-10 triples in the first half and finished with an 11-of-17 showing, the fifth best effort in Marlin history. Young led the long-range effort, hitting all three of his attempts, while Fitch was 3-of-4 and Balenga 2-of-3.
Virginia Wesleyan helped its cause with another strong effort on the boards, outrebounding the Builders 50-34. Thirteen different Marlins grabbed at least one rebound, led by senior Matt Towell (Gloucester, Va./Hargrave), Young and Fantin with six each. Rookie Tory Green (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) added five.
Junior Thomas Sumpter (Hampton, Va./Bethel) and sophomore D’Juan Tucker (Dumfries, Va./Forest Park) combined efforts to help keep the floor game flowing for the Marlins, passing out 11 of the team’s 19 assists. Sumpter led the way with six. Tucker led the Marlins with three steals.
Two-time United States Collegiate Athletic Association All-American Charles Holiday (Williamsburg, Va./Lafayette) paced Apprentice with 10 points. Jonathan Martin (Afton, Va./Western Albemarle) tallied nine and Reggie Bell (Hampton, Va./Hampton) emerged with eight. The Builders shot only 29 percent for the game, including a 23 percent showing from long range.
Virginia Wesleyan returns to action on Monday, January 2, in a non-conference game as the Marlins host defending USA South champion, and 2006 title favorite, Methodist College at 3 p.m. at the Batten Center. Apprentice plays again January 3 at Concord University at 6 p.m.
–VWC–