ASHLAND, Va. – Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) netted the 1,000
th point of his collegiate career, but the eighth-seeded Guilford College men's basketball team (13-13, 7-9 ODAC) saw their season halted in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Quarterfinals by top-seeded and top nationally ranked Randolph-Macon College (23-2, 14-2 ODAC), 94-73 at the Crenshaw Gym on Tuesday night.
Netting 401 points as a freshman at Pitt-Bradford, Salters racked up 592 through the regular season before netting a swift seven in the contest to become the second Quakers men's basketball player to surpass the career milestone this year, joining
Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.).
When it came to the game, the Yellow Jackets proved exactly why they are not just the ODAC favorites, but by the most-recent polls, the national title favorites in this one. As a team, R-MC shot .563 from the field, while controlling the glass, 41-29 and possessions, only committing 10 turnovers, the fewest GC forced all year. Guilford did shoot a reasonable .431 mark overall and strong .412 rate from three, albeit in just 17 attempts, but the hosts held a 27-4 edge on the break, 19-10 advantage off turnovers, and doubled-up GC in points in the paint, 56-28.
Salters finished his first year in the ODAC on an impressive note, netting a game-high 26 on 9-of-16 overall and 4-for-6 from three.
Rival Axselle (Mechanicsville, Va.) made all-seven of his shot attempts to finish with 15 points but no other Quaker reached double-digits as
Tripp McMillen (Dodson, N.C.) finished third on the squad in scoring with nine. Proctor and
Ke Edwards (Hickory, N.C.) grabbed a team-high four rebounds and
Kody Clayton (Cary, N.C.) led Guilford with three steals and three assists.
Randolph-Macon's supreme balance was on full display with 10 different players scoring five-or-more points while their top scorer, Theo Antinori came off the bench, netting 16 in a double-double effort, grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds. Keishawn Pulley Jr. scored a dozen while Liam Joyce and Jabril Robinson contributed 10 each with Robinson leading all players with six helpers.
Guilford performed well in the early going, netting five of the first six before the hosts went on a 9-2 burst. Salters then netted five-straight, with a three-pointer ahead of the first media timeout representing the 1,000
th point of his collegiate career while also representing a 12-10 Quaker lead. R-MC flipped the lead and were up 22-19 after an Axselle make in the lane around the midway point before they created distance, netting eight-straight. GC stayed in it with back-to-back threes and a couple at the stripe by McMillen, but a 9-4 close by the Yellow Jackets opened up a double-digit halftime lead, 44-34.
A flurry of points right out of the locker rooms did draw the Quakers within six, but Randolph-Macon responded by burying their guests with 14 unanswered. McMillen finally ended the drought only for R-MC to rattle off another eight, extending their lead to 26. Guilford got back with 13 briefly, but never really got back in the game the rest of the way with the score finalizing at 94-73.
Randolph-Macon advances to Salem, Va. for the ODAC Semifinals where they will meet fourth-seeded Hampden-Sydney College, who bested the University of Lynchburg. For Guilford, this ends their 2025-26 season.
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