Roanoke College, tied for 29th in the latest D3Hoops.com poll, won their seventh straight contest as the Maroons defeated the Eastern Mennonite University men's basketball team Saturday night in the Bast Center.

EMU drops to 4-8 overall and 1-5 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference while Roanoke improves to 11-2 on the year and 5-1 in the conference.

Senior forward Brad Parkes (Winchester, Va./James Wood) had a team high 16 points along with eight rebounds while freshman guard George Johnson (Richmond, Va./Miller School) had another 14 points for the visiting Royals.

"We didn't hit our shots and they did," commented EMU head coach Kirby Dean. "They went up by 14 in the second half and as a young team that is hard to come back from."

EMU led early on in the first half as two free throw shots from Johnson and a bucket from senior guard Jered Lyons (Takoma Park, Md./St. Johns at Prospect Hall) gave the Royals their biggest lead of the game at 10-4 (16:51 on clock).

Roanoke started chopping down the EMU lead with AJ Dowell and Zach Milton knocking the deficit to two (10-8). The Royals pushed it back up to four points until a 7-0 run by Roanoke gave the home team a three point advantage.

The Maroons did not look back as they increased the gap to as much as 11 points before heading into the locker room with a 34-24 lead. Keith Carter had nine points in the half with Melvin Felix adding seven points off the bench for RC.

The second half featured more Roanoke offense as the lead grew to 20 with only two minutes off the clock. After the lead grew to 22 points the Royals battled back with freshman Rashawn Hannah (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) adding a three-point play on a jumper and one. With EMU down only 15, the home team built that deficit back up with Carter and Josh LaPorte adding baskets for Roanoke. The Maroons put the game out of reach on layup from Curtis Perry followed by a couple of free throw shots in the Maroons next possession to make the score 76-53 with less than five minutes remaining.

Perry led all scorers with 20 points and eight rebounds while Carter finished with 13 points. Felix and LaPorte also reached double digits for Roanoke with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

The Royals will travel to Norfolk, Va., to take on the Marlins of Virginia Wesleyan on Wednesday, January 23, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.