#22 Roanoke College battled back from a 10-point first half deficit to defeat Eastern Mennonite University Saturday night by a score of 80-77 in Old Dominion Athletic Conference men's basketball action.

EMU drops to 7-5 on the year and 3-2 in the ODAC.

Roanoke improves to 12-1, 4-0 in the conference.

The Royals were led by 20 points from George Johnson (Richmond, Va./Miller School). D.J. Hinson (Newport News, Va./Menchville) had 12 points and six boards while LeRoger Parrish (Danville, Va./Tunstall) came off the bench and added another 13 points.

Felix Melvin led all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Curtis Perry registered a double-double with 23 points and 12 boards.

EMU had a 16-point lead at one point in the first half as the Royals shot 45 percent from the floor (17-of-37) compared to only 29 percent from the Maroons (11-of-37). Following a back-and-forth lead exchange through the first five minutes of the contest the Royals were able to build a six-point lead on layups by Devon McRae (Altavista, Va./Altavista) and Johnson. Free throws by Austin Twine (Dublin, Va./Pulaski Co.) brought the lead up to eight points and after a brief scoring drought the Royals were then able to build a double digit advantage on layups from Hinson and Parrish.

Johnson scored 14 points in the first frame with Parrish coming off the bench and adding another nine points to the EMU attack.

With the visiting team up by 10 at the break, the Maroons quickly responded with a 4-0 run to start the second half. EMU responded with a bucket from Orie Pancione (Augusta, WVa./Hampshire) only to have Roanoke match that on a Felix jumper. Johnson then drove down the court and dropped in one of his four three-pointers on the day with the Maroons again responding on a Perry jumper. Another long ball from EMU, this time by Hinson, was again met with a responce from Roanoke as the clock wound down to 15:53. Pancione hit a layup to put EMU up by nine (52-43) only to have the Royals go scoreless for the next 1:43 as Roanoke went on a 6-0 run to close to only three of tying (52-49).

A jumper by Hinson got the Royals back on track as EMU continued to maintain a slight advantage for the next three minutes. Roanoke broke through and tied the contest at the 10:24 mark as a 4-0 swing was capped by a Felix jumper, tying the game at 57. The visiting squad sank 1-of-2 free throw attempts on their next possession only to have the Maroons get a jumper from Corey Poindexter to take their first lead of the game (59-58, 9:06 remaining).

Roanoke built up a five point lead only to have the Royals storm back and tie the game again at 65. Another back-and-forth battle for the game took place through the next two minutes until 2:47 left in regulation when a Poindexter three-pointer gave the home team the lead for good, 73-71. EMU continued to battle and was only one point down with 12 ticks remaining (78-77) when Felix hit both attempts from the charity stripe to push the deficit to three, 80-77. Johnson put up one last attempt from outside the arc only to have it sail just wide of the net, clinching the win for the home team.

Pancione finished with 10 points and six rebounds. Todd Phillips (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro) had nine points, eight rebounds, four steals, and a pair of blocks for EMU in the loss.

Poindexter had nine points and a pair of assists off the bench for Roanoke.

EMU will take a short break and return to Yoder Arena on Monday, January 12, for a non-conference battle with the Knights of Southern Virginia at 7 p.m.