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Keishawn Pulley sweetens Randolph-Macon’s success

Fred Jeter | 12/29/2022, 6 p.m.
Of all the college basketball programs in America, perhaps the most consistent winner of all is just 19 miles north …

Of all the college basketball programs in America, perhaps the most consistent winner of all is just 19 miles north of Richmond.

Since the 2018-19 season, Randolph-Macon College in Ashland is 109-8. That includes a 33-1 mark a year ago when the Yellow Jackets won the NCAA Division III title.

And despite losing National Player of the Year Buzz Anthony to graduation, the winning drumbeat continues under coach Josh Merkel.

R-MC is 9-1 this season and ranked third nationally with a gifted freshman from Richmond helping to ease the loss of all-time great Anthony.

Keishawn Pulley Jr., a 6-foot-2, 190-pound combo guard out of St. Christopher’s School, has emerged as a star on the rise.

Wearing No. 3 in Lemon ‘n’ Black, he practically was an overnight sensation in R-MC’s opening wins in the Hood College Tip-off tournament in Frederick, Md.

In his first college game, Pulley, aka “KP,” tallied 10 points in a win over Mary Baldwin. The next night he poured in 21 points in a victory over Hood.

Overall, the college “rookie” has averaged nine points while collecting 16 assists, eight steals and hitting 77 percent (17-for-22) from the foul stripe. Pulley has logged about 20 minutes per outing in a balanced attack featuring senior standouts Miles Mallory (15.1 scoring average) and Josh Talbert (12.1). Mallory is another potential National Player of Year.

As a St. Chris senior, Pulley averaged 19 points per game and was Prep League Co-Player of Year.

He is the latest in a glossy list of athletes from the 804 area code to shine their star at R-MC’s Crenshaw Gym.

Fletcher Johnson, out of John Marshall High, is the Jackets’ all-time scorer with 2,216 points between 1970 and ’75.

From Henrico High, Justin Wansley scored 1,566 points from 2002-’06. Others in R-MC’s 1,000-point club are Justin Short from Manchester and Kevin Wood from J.R. Tucker.

R-MC has one national title and, minus the global pandemic, might have three straight. The Jackets were 12-0 in the shortened 2020-21 season, and 28-2 in 2019-20, when the NCAA playoffs were canceled.