BRIDGEWATER, Va. - The seventh-ranked Virginia Wesleyan Marlins took advantage of a cold shooting night by Bridgewater College to pull away in the second half for a 66-51 ODAC victory.

Both teams had trouble finding the range in the first half with the Marlins holding a 28-25 lead at the break. Virginia Wesleyan shot 37 percent (10-of-27) in the first half while the Eagles made just 26.9 percent (7-of-26) of their shots from the floor.

"Having the game against Averett postponed, I believe that really hurt is tonight," BC head coach Don Burgess said. "We tried to make our practices more competitive the past couple of days so we could retain that edge, but tonight we were just out sync the entire game. We shot 29 percent. You're not going to win many college basketball games when you shoot 29 percent.

"Give Virginia Wesleyan the credit," Burgess continued. "They were out of sync early on as well, but they made some shots in the second half and played well enough to win. We just did not have the intensity tonight that we need in order to win a conference game, especially a conference game against a nationally-ranked team."

Bridgewater's shooting woes continued in the second half while the Marlins heated up, especially from 3-point range. The Marlins hit 50 percent from the field, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, while BC made just 32 percent of its attempts (8-for-25).

The shooting difficulties were not confined only to the field as both teams also struggled at the foul line. Virginia Wesleyan made 20-of-33 foul shots while the Eagles were 16-for-28.

The Marlins put three players in double figures, led by Donald Vaughn with 19 points. Chris Astorga and Stephen Fields each scored 17 points.

Dominic Trawick finished with 26 points to lead the Eagles.

"Dom had 26 points, five rebounds and four steals, but we did not have anyone else step up on the offensive end," Burgess said.

Bridgewater did outrebound the Marlins, 43-37, with Segar Jordan leading the BC effort with 11 boards. Vaughn finished with a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds to go with his 19 points.

"Segar with 11 rebounds and Rick Maloney with nine rebounds did a nice job on the boards for us tonight," added Burgess.

Virginia Wesleyan improves to 18-2 overall and 9-2 in the ODAC while the Eagles drop to a 7-10 record overall and a 5-6 conference mark.