A sloppy game on both ends of the court still resulted in a win for the Eastern Mennonite University women's basketball team as the Lady Royals remain unbeaten on the year following a 63-50 decision over Randolph College Monday night.

The 6-0 start by EMU is only one back of the 2003-04 squad which started its year with seven straight decisions. The Lady Royals remain on top of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference with a 2-0 record.

Randolph falls to 0-3 on the season, 0-1 in the ODAC.

Brittany Snyder (Raphine, Va./Riverheads) scored a team-high 15 points while Kathleen Kitchen (Gainesville, Va./Brentsville District) scored 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds.

Ebony Dennis (Baltimore, Md./Western) registered eight points, 10 boards, and tied a career high with six steals.

Randolph was paced by Michelle Brockman who registered her third straight double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Megan Carney chipped in another 15 points to the Randolph attack.

EMU shot 39 percent from the floor (20-51) in the game but only 18 percent (3-16) from three-point range. Randolph also had trouble finding the basket as the WildCats shot 28 percent from the floor (16-56). EMU also committed 23 turnovers with Randolph registering 26.

"Kathleen offensively picked us up tonight, and we really had to grind it out and earn every point," commented EMU head coach Kevin Griffin. "Nothing we did, and give them credit, seemed to come easy. Defensively, Ebony was tremendous and Brittany, who was very sick, played three minutes at a time and gave us big points."

The first half was a battle for both teams, especially the Lady Royals who found themselves down by nine with 15:51 on the clock. A 5-0 run, keyed by a bucket from Miranda Wolfe (Verona, Va./Fort Defiance), put the home team down only two (12-10) four minutes later. Randolph answered with four straight points as the two teams exchanged baskets down the stretch. EMU pulled away late in the half only to have the WildCats close to only one point of the lead as Brockman stole the ball and went down for the easy lay in as time expired (31-30).

Carney had 12 of her 15 points in the first frame for Randolph.

In the second half the Lady Royals finally began to click on offense as Snyder came through with 10 points in the frame including a big three-pointer at the 11:13 mark that put EMU up by eight (49-41). The WildCats continued to claw back as they quickly dwindled that eight point deficit to only six. EMU went up 12 with five minutes remaining on a free throw by Kitchen only to have a pair of layups by Brockman, and a point from the charity stripe, put Randolph down by only seven. The see-saw battle continued until the final minute of the contest as the Lady Royals put some distance between them and the visiting WildCats. With Randolph forced to foul, EMU made 6-of-8 free throw attempts to boost their lead back up to double figures as time expired.

Melissa Lewis (Stuarts Draft, Va./Stuarts Draft) notched nine points, seven assists, and four rebounds for EMU.

"MJ (Melissa) was key for us as her defensive pressure was huge. We attempted to play our style of basketball, but overall we were just not there. They did a tremendous job keeping us off balance. Until tonight, free throws were not a big problem for us. We have to get back to making the most of those opportunities and playing our pace of basketball."

Katie Rechnitzer and Lindsay Cross each had five points for Randolph.

EMU, which is hosting their next three opponents, welcomes in the Marlins of Virginia Wesleyan College on Saturday, December 6, for a 4 p.m., game in Yoder Arena.