The Eastern Mennonite University men's basketball team out scored Washington & Lee 46-41 in the second half but were unable to fight out of an early first half deficit as the Generals held on to defeat the Royals 81-77 Wednesday night in conference play.

EMU falls to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference while Washington & Lee improves to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

EMU went into the locker room after the first half down 40-31, but came out firing in the second half and were able to cut the W&L down to two points with less than 30 seconds on the clock. EMU and W&L exchanged fouls and with the clock winding down Chris Halkitis knocked in two crucial free throws to push the W&L lead back up to four, sealing the win for the Generals.

Senior forward Jason Sager (Edinburg, Va.) and junior guard Jered Lyons (Takoma Park, Md.) each scored over 20 points to lead the offense for EMU. Sager finished the contest with 25 points and seven rebounds and is now only eight rebounds shy of third place on the EMU career rebounds list.

Lyons recorded a career-high 21 points and was 6-of-9 from the field with three assists. Junior Brad Parkes (Winchester, Va.) added another 10 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

Greg Bienemann finished as the leading scorer for W&L with 25 points including 11-for-11 on free throws. Femi Kusimo also added another 15 points for the Generals.

EMU returns home for its next contest on Saturday, December 9th, as the Royals welcome in the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon at 7 p.m. as part of a double-header with the EMU women's basketball team hosting Randolph-Macon at 4:30 p.m.