Randolph-Macon withstood a late charge by the Eastern Mennonite University men's basketball team in the second half to defeat the Royals 82-73 Wednesday night in Ashland, Va.

The Yellow Jackets now stand at 11-3 overall on the season and 5-0 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. EMU drops to 8-6 on the year and 3-3 in the conference.

"You can't afford to spot a team the quality of Randolph-Macon a big lead to start the game," commented EMU head coach Kirby Dean. "After getting back into the game, we played well and had a solid effort all around. We had to work so hard to get back to 60-60 in the second half that we lost our legs a little."

D.J. Hinson (Newport News, Va./Menchville) led the Royals with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field. Todd Phillips (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro) matched a career high with 18 points while pulling down eight rebounds.

Orie Pancione (Augusta, WVa./Hampshire) had eight points and led the team with 10 rebounds.

Randolph-Macon had four starters scored in double figures. The Yellow Jackets were paced by 17 points from Justin Short and another 15 from Jordan Brown. Kevin Voelkel and Boris Varela had 11 and 10 points each respectively.

The game started off on a rough streak for the Royals as EMU was the victim of a 15-0 run by Randolph-Macon. Pancione sank both free throw attempts to put EMU on the board and key a 7-0 swing by the visiting squad. Up by eight points, Brandon Braxton increased the Yellow Jacket lead to double figures on a layup, but EMU followed with an answer from Phillips. The two teams exchanged baskets until the 6:36 mark when LeRoger Parrish (Danville, Va./Tunstall) drained a long ball to put the Royals down only six (26-20).

From that point until the 2:39 mark the visiting Royals were unable to break past the six-point deficit as the Yellow Jackets continually answered each basket EMU made. Danny Jones put Randolph-Macon up by nine on a three-pointer with 1:30 left with senior center Chancelor Fitzgerald (Chatham, Va./Chatham) answering with a jumper. This back-and-forth lasted until the buzzer sounded on the first half as Short sank all three attempts from the charity stripe to put RMC up by nine as the teams headed into the locker room.

Short had nine points in the half. Voelkel had eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field to go along with four rebounds.

In the second half the Yellow Jackets waisted little time in getting their advantage back up into double figures as Voelkel put up a pair on a jumper. EMU responded on a basket from Phillips with Varela hitting another jumper on the home team's next possession. With the clock at 17:36, Pancione hit a tough layup that ignited a 5-0 swing for EMU that put them down only two (47-45). With the momentum on the visiting bench, Randolph-Macon went back up by seven points but the Royals were not swayed as George Johnson (Richmond, Va./Miller School) and Phillips brought the deficit down to only one point (56-55, 12:02) on three straight baskets. The Royals finally broke through a few moments later on a long ball from Hinson to tie the game at 58 all. Pancione followed the Hinson bucket with a jumper in the paint to give EMU their first lead of the game at 60-58 (10:22).

The game swung back to the home team as Jones tied it back up with a layup and Eric Pugh drained a three, making the score 63-60. Randolph-Macon got another basket by Short to push their advantage to five. Austin Twine (Dublin, Va./Pulaski Co.) hit both free throw attempts to cut the deficit to three, but that was as close as the Royals were able to get the rest of the game. The Yellow Jackets built a lead back up to seven (69-62, 4:55) and eventually increased that margin back up to 10 on a Brown layup. Pugh, who gave Randolph-Macon the lead back, closed out the win on two free throws as time wound down.

Hinson scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half while Phillips registered 12 points.

The Royals were 5-of-11 from behind the arc in the second half and tied the Yellow Jackets with 42 points in the second half.

EMU will host the WildCats of Randolph College on Saturday, January 17, at 7 p.m.