It was only the calm before the storm, however.
Adair (Virginia Beach, VA/Princess Anne) closed out the half with 14 more points and added 19 in the second half to post a career-high total of 33 as he helped guide the Marlins to a 78-66 Old Dominion Athletic Conference victory before a near sell-out crowd at the Jane P. Batten Center. He connected on a season-high 11-of-15 field goal attempts and a season-high 11-of-14 free throws for his total, which was the best for a Marlin player since November 21, 2000 when Ron Yuhasz scored 34 points against Christopher Newport University.
If that wasn’t enough, Adair also mastered the backboards, pulling down a career-high 15 rebounds, the highest total for a VWC player since Yuhasz recorded 15 against Emory & Henry College on January 6, 2001.
With his Marlins leading by a slim 18-16 margin with 8:46 remaining in the half, Adair closed out the half netting 5-of-7 shots and 4-of-4 free throws to help steer VWC to a 37-30 lead by halftime. The Marlins led by as many as 11 points down the stretch, before back-to-back baskets by Quakers Ben Strong and Kerry Atkinson took Guilford out of the double-digit deficit.
Andy Sharpe took the spread down a little further when he scored the first bucket of the second half for Guilford, but the Quakers would get no closer. Junior Marques Fitch (Virginia Beach, VA/Kellam) ripped a three-pointer, rookie Ton Ton Balenga (Newport News, VA/Warwick) followed with a jumper and the Marlins were off on a 26-9 run that virtually decided the game. It was a run that evoked a roar from the large crowd when Adair leaped high to take in a pass from senior Peter Warren (Winchester, VA/Handley) and finish it off with a powerful dunk from the side of the hoop.
VWC was nearly perfect in the seven-minute run, hitting 9-of-10 from the field and 6-of-7 from the charity stripe, while Guilford canned only 2-of-9 fielders, 4-of-7 freebies, and turned the ball over four times. Five different Marlins scored in the run, led by sophomore Rodney Young (Norfolk,VA/Norview) with eight points, Adair with seven and Fitch with five.
Virginia Wesleyan held on to a 20-point lead to the 10-minute mark of the game, before Guilford put on an ending rush to close the gap. Led by Thomas Burge and Atkinson, the Quakers launched 17 shots in the waning minutes and canned seven to whittle the deficit to 12 points by the final buzzer.
While Adair’s scoring led all point-producers in the game, the Marlins were also helped by a 13-point effort from Balenga, 12 from Young and 11 from Fitch. Strong finished with 18 points for Guilford, hitting 7-of-14 shots from the field. Atkinson tallied 13 points and Burge finished with 10, including eight in the second half.
Virginia Wesleyan returns to competition on Sunday, January 30, hosting the Wasps of Emory & Henry College in a 2:00 p.m. start. The Wasps dropped a record-breaking 140-123 decision to Randolph-Macon College on Saturday.
–VWC–