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FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The road was long, but the destination proved unforgettable.
No. 1 Randolph-Macon topped Elmhurst in the Division III national championship game Saturday night at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum 75-45, delivering the school its first NCAA title in any sport and completing the work started three years ago, before the pandemic began.
“To be able to cut down the nets, it’s been a journey we’re really proud of,” coach Josh Merkel said after the most lopsided championship game in D-III history.
Junior guard Josh Talbert scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds and national player of the year Buzz Anthony added 14 points to lead a balanced offensive attack that delivered the Yellow Jackets the championship in the same dominating fashion they rolled through this year’s NCAA tournament.
Elmhurst went up 18-17 with 8 minutes to go in the half on a basket by Wesley Hooker, putting R-MC (33-1) behind for the first time since 5 minutes into its quarterfinal win over WPI on March 12. The Yellow Jackets responded with a 10-0 run.
“I think we were just feeling it out early on,” said junior forward Miles Mallory, who had 10 points and nine rebounds. “They came out physical. They brought the intensity, so we had to bring it back.”
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Anthony and senior Ian Robertson put Macon ahead 35-23 with 2:18 left in the half, and it went to the locker room up 38-23.
Before 3 minutes had come off the clock in the second half, the Yellow Jackets’ lead had swelled to 44-27. Elmhurst (27-7) never really threatened Macon the rest of the way as it capped a nearly perfect season in the perfect way.
“I thought today was just a culmination of the past three years,” said Anthony, a fifth-year senior guard who came back to R-MC for this moment. “We’ve just had guys step up and step up.”
If not for a single point, a 77-76 overtime loss to Christopher Newport in November, the Yellow Jackets would have been undefeated this season. But Saturday night, no one was lamenting that lone tally, nor were they bemoaning the back-to-back title opportunities wiped out by the pandemic or the bus-flight-flight-bus travel odyssey that got them to Fort Wayne.
This night was all about finishing the job.
The Yellow Jackets have been one of the nation’s top programs for the past three seasons, but the D-III tournament was canceled in 2020 and 2021, first due to the spread of COVID-19 and then because of low participation among schools the second season.
That meant a wait of over two years to show how they could stack up on the national stage. And Macon did not disappoint.
R-MC went 16-0 in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play, breezed through the league tournament and blistered the field in the NCAA draw. Merkel talked to his team this month about “finishing like a buzzsaw,” and it did.
The Yellow Jackets had won each of their first five NCAA games by double figures, advancing to the championship game by an average margin of 23.8 points.
That included Friday night’s dismantling of No. 2 Marietta, an 81-63 win that put the Jackets in their first-ever D-III title game, positioning them to become the first Virginia team to win the title since Virginia Wesleyan in 2006.
“I do think we were a bit of a buzz saw,” said Merkel. “And so no matter what we were going to see today, I think our guys were ready.”
To travel to the Final Four, the Yellow Jackets bussed to Washington, D.C., flew to Chicago and then Toledo, then bussed to Fort Wayne — two hours northeast of Indianapolis — where the tournament’s final weekend was sharing a complex with a national alpaca show and a gun show.
The championship used to be held in Salem — from 1996-2012 and again in 2014 and 2018 — but moved to Fort Wayne the next year. That made for an easier trip — about 200 miles from Elmhurst, Ill. — for the Blue Jays fans and for a decidedly hostile environment for R-MC.
But the Macon fans, most of whom drove the more than 10 hours to Indiana, made their presence felt, too, from the opening introductions to the joyous on-court celebration when time ran out, reveling in the school’s first national title and the completion of a journey.
“I love it for all the athletes at Randolph-Macon,” said Merkel. “Because I think it shows, with hard work and a commitment and that daily, consistent approach, disciplined approach, that you can do anything. You can get here, and it’s a special feeling when you do.”
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