Boxscore

RICHMOND, Va. – Led by a game-high 20 points and a school record 22 rebounds by senior forward Terrence Parkes, the Goldey-Beacom College men's basketball team pulled away late in the second half to claim a 67-52 victory over Virginia State University in the Doubletree Hotel Richmond Downtown Capitol Area Classic on Thurs. night at Barco-Stevens Hall.

The Lightning, which have won six of their last seven games, improved to 7-6 overall while VSU, of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, fell to 1-9.

The first 20 minutes featured four ties and five lead changes, but with the score knotted at 20 apiece, a technical foul assessed to VSU sent senior guard Azeez Ellegood (eight points, six assists) to the line where he sank four straight free-throws to put the Lightning ahead to stay at 24-20.

GBC was out-shot 33 percent to 25 percent from the field in the first half, but its three-point shooting edge (4-of-14 to 1-of-5) helped the Lightning seize a 26-22 lead going into intermission. Senior guard Jon Crawford was GBC's leading scorer in the frame with six points on 2-of-3 from behind-the-arc.

Parkes scored 11 of the Lightning's first 13 points in the second half in a span of 7:25 as GBC outscored VSU 13-8 to extend its lead to eight, 39-31 and force two early Trojan timeouts.

A three-pointer by Virginia State's Ivan Harris at 13:58 had cut the Lightning lead to three (34-31), but a Rich Flemming (season-high 16 points) dunk off a feed from Ellegood started a 12-2 GBC run over the next 4:50, culminating in a conventional three-point play by senior guard Darnell Cephas (nine points, four assists) to grab a 46-32 advantage. The Lightning never let the lead get under 10 from that point on.

Parkes and Flemming dominated inside with 16 and 12 second-half points, respectively, as Goldey-Beacom shot a blistering 53 percent from the field and outscored VSU 41-30 in the period. The Lightning outscored the Trojans 26-14 in the paint in the second half (34-24 for the game) and their bench scored 15 points compared to just three by the VSU bench.

A 6-foot-6 forward from New Rochelle, N.Y., Parkes had previously owned a share of the school's record for rebounds in a game with 17, but he shattered that mark tonight with 22.

Meanwhile, graduate student forward Rich Flemming posted his third double-digit scoring game with a season-high 16 on 8-for-13 shooting from the field (61.5 percent) and also pulled down eight rebounds.

Davon Charity and Chris Washington each tallied 10 points to lead Virginia State, but the Trojans shot just 34.5 percent from the field, including a dreadful 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) from three-point range.

The Lightning did a much better job distributing the basketball (15 assists/10 turnovers to 9 assists/14 turnovers) and shot better at the foul line (14-of-18 to 10-of-17). They also held a slight 43-40 edge in the rebounding battle.

GBC enters back into Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference play when the Lightning host South Division foe University of the Sciences in Philadelphia at the Jones Center on Jan. 6 at 8 p.m.