Molly Ariail had a team high 18 points along with 11 boards as the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon College moved to 3-0 overall on the season following a 75-61 conference win over the Eastern Mennonite University women's basketball team Tuesday night in Ashland, Va.

Randolph-Macon, ranked #22 in Division III by D3Hoops.com, is now 1-0 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference after claiming the conference championship last year. EMU falls to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the ODAC.

The game was a tale of two different halves for the Lady Royals as Randolph-Macon gained a 41-25 advantage heading into the break after scoring eight unanswered points to open the contest. Ariail and Lindsey Riesbeck each had 10 points for the Yellow Jackets with Amanda Hiltunen adding eight points and four assists.

The Lady Royals countered with sophomore Lele Shumate (McDowell, Va./Highland Co.) coming off the bench and putting down nine points.

EMU was out rebounded in the first half by the Yellow Jackets with RMC getting 20 boards to only eight for the Lady Royals. "Defensively we did not play well and we just dug a huge hole for ourselves at the onset of the game," commented EMU head coach Kevin Griffin.

Entering the second half down by 19 the Lady Royals slowly began to chip away at the Yellow Jacket lead and closed to within 11 points with 5:35 left in the game. The dynamic Randolph-Macon offense made sure that was as close as EMU was going to get as a jumper by Ariail and a layup by Hiltunen pushed the lead back up to 15 as the Yellow Jackets closed out the win.

When talking about his teams effort in the second half Griffin explained, "we just couldn't get back into the game. They had a big lead and it seemed everytime we had an opportunity to make a shot and close the gap they would come up with a big play and push us that much farther out. We didn't shoot well as a team and that lack of one big shot to change the momentum just did not happen."

EMU, which outscored RMC in the second half 36-34, had nine points in the second frame from sophomore guard Ebony Dennis (Baltimore, Md./Western) and another eight points from senior guard Dana Powell (Roanoke, Va./Northside). Powell was 4-for-4 from the field with two assists while senior Jolene Kratz (Telford, Pa./Christopher Dock) had another 10 points for EMU.

Dennis and Shumate led the squad with 11 points.

"Randolph-Macon really has some solid post players and they played a big role tonight," added Griffin. "Their team played hard and we just could not find a way to get some of our shots to fall and get back into the game after giving them a big lead in the first half."

EMU will stay on the road as the Lady Royals travel down Route 42 as they take on rival Bridgewater College on Saturday, December 1, at 2 p.m.