Jill Weston came off the bench and contributed 11 points to the Virginia Wesleyan attack as the Marlins needed the second half boost to defeat the Eastern Mennonite University women's basketball team, 57-48, Saturday afternoon in Virginia Beach, Va.

The Lady Royals end the 2007-08 regular season with a 19-6 overall record and a 15-5 mark in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The 19 wins by EMU marks the highest total for the team during the regular season since the 2003-04 squad that made its way to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen round. Virginia Wesleyan holds onto the top spot in the conference as both teams head into the ODAC tournament next week.

Sophomore guard Ebony Dennis (Baltimore, Md./Western) had a team leading 15 points for EMU with junior forward Carolyn Riley (Warrenton, Va./Liberty-Bealeton) had another 14 points and a team best nine rebounds.

Heather Phillips and Weston led the home team with 11 points each while Tonia Jones had 10 points and seven rebounds in the win.

"Give them all the credit, they played terrific and were fired up and ready to go from the beginning," explained EMU head coach Kevin Griffin. "They are a well coached team and they made the big shots down the stretch."

The Lady Royals, who have played four games within a week, came out noticiably tired in the first half as they shot only 21 percent (5-of-23) while committing 14 turnovers. EMU trailed at one time by 18 points in the first half and went into the break down 29-12.

"We just couldn't make any shots out of the block and when we weren't turning the ball over and actually getting a few turnovers off of them, we were unable to convert and cut into their lead."

EMU, which had won the past three games against Virginia Wesleyan, all decided by three points or less, responded in the second half and came out on fire as a 17 point deficit at half quickly dropped to only a two point lead for the Marlins. With just under nine minutes remaining in the game Weston came into the game and immediately made an impact as she drained one of her three treys to shoot the Virginia Wesleyan advantage back up to five. The VWC lead grew to nine as Weston added a jumper with 5:17 remaining with EMU unable to mount a second comeback in the game.

The Lady Royals shot 48 percent (13-of-27) in the second half with Dennis and Riley each pacing the team with 12 points each. Senior center Jolene Kratz (Telford, Pa./Christopher Dock) had six points and six boards for EMU.

Allison Wheeler had eight points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field for the Marlins.

The Lady Royals will now wait for the offical bracket to be released on Sunday to find out who they will match up with in the conference tournament.