George Johnson (Richmond, Va./Miller School) scored a career-high 27 points as the Eastern Mennonite University men's basketball team edged out the Lynchburg College Hornets 89-85, on Wednesday, December 3.

EMU improved to 5-2 on the season and remains unbeaten in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference at 2-0. Lynchburg falls to 1-4 on the year, 1-1 in the conference.

D.J. Hinson (Newport News, Va./Menchville) tied a career-high with 24 points while nailing 6-of-11 from behind the arc. Devon McRae (Altavista, Va./Altavista) recorded another nine points off the bench for EMU.

Steven Echols and Mason Wooldridge each paced the Hornets with 22 points. KC Mendez had 16 points and eight rebounds in the loss.

"I thought we played well on offense in the first half, yet we just weren't there on the defensive side of the ball," commented head coach Kirby Dean. "We just switched that around in the second half, playing better on defense than on offense. We have to fix that and get more consistent before our next game."

A 4-0 run to start the game by Lynchburg put the home team down early with Johnson stroking one of his five three-pointers in the contest to cut the deficit to one. Johnson followed that up with a layup on the Royals next possession to put EMU on top, 5-4. A pair of free throws by Austin Twine (Dublin, Va./Pulaski Co.) resulted in a three point lead for EMU. Wooldridge answered for Lynchburg only to have EMU respond with a three from Hinson and a McRae basket to boost the lead up to six (12-6). Lynchburg followed with a 6-0 run to tie the contest with EMU again jumping out on top where they remained for the first half.

EMU carried a four-point lead into the break as the Royals shot 40 percent from the floor (12-of-30) compared to a strong 54 percent for the Hornets (13-of-24). Echols and Mendez each registered eight points in the first frame for LC.

Hinson led EMU with 11 points.

Mendez dropped in a layup to start off the second half for Lynchburg, cutting the deficit to two. EMU went back up by four on a pair of free throws by Todd Phillips (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro) as the two teams exchanged scores throughout the first 12 minutes of the half. There was four lead changes during that time while neither team was able to gain more than a five point advantage.

EMU looked to pull away from the Hornets as their high octane offense seemed to slow down the bigger Lynchburg roster. With a 74-64 lead, and just over four minutes remaining, the Royals seemed to have the game in hand when Echols and company began to fight back. Lynchburg went on a 5-0 run before EMU answered with a Johnson three-pointer. Lynchburg then scored four straight unanswered points with Echols laying in a basket as the clock hit 1:39 to put the visiting team down 77-73. EMU continued to put just enough points on the board to keep Lynchburg from being down by only one score. Echols continued to press the Royal defense on each Lynchburg possession as he moved the ball down the court and either fed Wooldridge for the layup or scored himself. The Hornets, down by only two and forced to foul, put Johnson on the line twice in the final 10 seconds. The sophomore guard drained both, and was 10-for-10 on the day from the charity stripe, as he put Lynchburg down by two possessions and sealed the win for EMU.

Orie Pancione (Augusta, WVa./Hampshire) had eight points and six rebounds for EMU.

Danny Reed and Jeff Langrock each had nine points for Lynchburg.

The Royals will now stay on the road for the remainder of the 2008 season as they travel to Buena Vista, Va., to go up against the Knights on Friday, December 5, at 7 p.m.