Hayley James recorded 16 points while pulling down 12 rebounds to lead the Washington & Lee Generals to a 53-43 win over the Eastern Mennonite University women's basketball team Friday night in Salem, Va., in the first round of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference basketball tournament.

EMU ends the 2006-07 season with an impressive 17-8 record overall and a 15-5 mark in the ODAC after finishing last year with a 14-12 record, including a 10-10 record in the conference.

Leading scorer Carolyn Riley (Warrenton, Va.) was held out of the starting line-up for EMU thanks to a virus and chipped in eight points and six rebounds. Freshman Lele Shumate (McDowell, Va.) led the team with nine points off the bench on 3-of-5 shooting from the field.

The Lady Royals trailed 22-19 at the break against a Washington & Lee team they had defeated a week earlier to clinch the number three seed in the tournament. The Generals received strong production from James as well as Emily Wolff who added 13 points while pulling down eight rebounds for W&L. Kristin Krouchick had eight points and seven boards for the Generals who will now go on to play Virginia Wesleyan on Saturday, February 24, at 8 p.m.

EMU had tied the game with less than eight minutes remaining in the second half on a couple of free-throws by freshman Ebony Dennis (Baltimore, Md.). The two teams then exchanged leads before W&L took advantage of a couple of costly EMU turnovers to pull ahead.

Dennis had eight points and a team-high nine boards for EMU with sophomore Kathleen Steele (Gainsville, Va.) scoring six points to go along with seven rebounds.