Owls Fall to #6-Ranked Randolph Macon in NCAA Tournament

WESTFIELD, Mass.    –   Amr Aerikat scored a game high 17 points to lead the way for Randolph Macon (Va.) College as Westfield State fell to the Yellowjackets by a 82-48 final score the opening round of the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Friday afternoon.

Westfield ends a terrific season 21-7, the fourth most wins in a season in program history.

Macon improves to 24-4.  The Yellowjackets entered the game ranked sixth in the country in the most recent D3hoops.com national poll.

Areikat, a 6-1 junior guard from Ramallah, Palestine, was a perfect 7-7 from the floor and 3-3 from long range as RMC shot nearly 57 percent from the floor in the game.  Ty Showalter added 10 points and eight rebounds, with Keishawn Pulley Jr. and Liam Joyce also finishing in double figures with 10.

Westfield was led by 16 points from Lid Moreland (Bridgeport, Conn.), 11 points and five rebounds from Kenneth Rogers, Jr. (Springfield, Mass.).   Kaiden James (Windsor, Conn.) scored seven off the bench late for Westfield and senior Timmy Jacobus (Willemestad, Curacao) led Westfield in rebounding with six.

The nation's fourth leading scoring defense entering the game, Randolph Macon's 3-2 matchup zone and interior size gave the Owls' offense fits.   Westfield was ranked ninth in the nation in scoring at 88 points per game, but was held to nearly half that total and shot just 27.8 percent from the floor on the afternoon.

The Owls trailed 39-23 at the half. 

A 17-3 spurt by the Yellowjackets in the first 6:30 of the second half dashed hopes for an Owls comeback attempt as the lead ballooned to 30 points.

Westfield uncharacteristically turned the ball over 11 times in the opening 20 minutes, which the Yellowjackets converted into 16 points.  Westfield shot just 2-9 from the floor in the first six minutes, and shot just 10-29 from the floor in the half, limiting the opportunities to press.

"I thought we had a pretty slow start," said Westfield State head coach Rich Sutter in the postgame press conference, "You're looking at Randolph Macon who's at the top, top-level of Division III, final fours, national championship, and that showed - that experience at a high level.  They came out really excited and revved up and we couldn't get that level of energy going at any time.  Credit to them. It was a tough night for our guys, not being able to get out of the gate a little bit."

Rogers led the Owls with nine points while Moreland added six.

Pulley led RMC in the opening stanza with 10 points with Joyce adding seven.  The Yellowjackets shot a blistering 61.5 percent (16-26) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes

Randolph Macon jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first 2:30 before Xavier Lewis (Long Island, N.Y.) got Westfield on the board with a drive to the hoop.

The Jackets led 9-2 after a follow up slam from Joyce in transition before Westfield settled in.  Rogers trimmed the lead to 14-7 with a right-wing three pointer at the 13:50 mark.   Westfield State center Eric Johnson (Houston, Tex.) was saddled with his third foul of the first half just 6:46 into the game.  RMC took advantage of the absence of the MASCAC Defensive player of the year and put in 24 points in the paint in the first half.

Randolph Macon advances to Saturday's second round, to face the winner of other first round game at the site, Franklin and Marshall vs. Catholic University.  That game will be at F&M on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

Westfield State was making its sixth appearance in the NCAA tournament, and fourth under coach Sutter since 2015.

"We've had a really, really good group to work with," said Sutter. "It didnt really show tonight, but if we want to get to that top level of basketball Randolph Macon is a good team to show us how to get there ... our guys got good experience, and we've got a good core returning.   We've won three of the last five in the MASCAC, so the goal is now get past this first round of the NCAAs. We haven't done that yet but we're gonna keep working on it."

Randolph Macon is making their 24^th appearance in the NCAA tournament.  The Yellow Jackets won the 2022 national title and made sweet 16 appearances in the last two seasons.