Eastern Mennonite University scored 51 points including a 10-for-14 line from behind the arc as the men's basketball team cruised to a 78-67 conference win over Randolph College Saturday night in Harrisonburg, Va.

EMU now stands at 9-6 on the season and 4-3 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Randolph falls to 2-12 on the year, 0-7 in the conference.

Sophomore guard George Johnson (Richmond, Va./Miller School) led all scorers with 18 points and was 5-of-7 from behind the arc. LeRoger Parrish (Danville, Va./Tunstall) had 13 points off the bench and was 3-of-5 from three-point range.

Jason Rutschman led the WildCats with 14 points. Aurimas Lekavicius finished right behind Rutschman with 13 points while grabbing six rebounds.

"The first half defined the way we want to play, our problem though has been playing that way for 40 minutes," explained head coach Kirby Dean. "We weren't able to sustain that offensive style for the whole game but were thankful for the win. We'll need to put 40 minutes together if we are going to finish where we need to in the standings."

Pete Hamilton put the visiting team on the board first in the game on a jumper with Todd Phillips (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro) answering with a bucket of his own. Derrick Woods-Morrow and Orie Pancione (Augusta, WVa./Hampshire) followed with a bucket each for their respective teams with Parrish delivering the big blow for EMU with a long ball to make the score 7-4 (16:53).

A D.J. Hinson (Newport News, Va./Menchville) jumper was followed by a basket by Rutschman, keeping the Royals ahead by only two. Johnson responded to the Rutschman jumper with a long distance three-pointer that put EMU up by five and then came back down the court on the Royals' next possession and hit another long ball, pushing the advantage to eight (15-7, 14:17).

Randolph cut the deficit to five on two different occasions in the half before the home team pushed their advantage up to double figures on a three-pointer from Phillips (23-12). The Royals continued to pour on the offense as they went ahead by 20 on a Chancelor Fitzgerald (Chatham, Va./Chatham) basket with 3:05 on the clock. The Randolph deficit grew to 25 before the WildCats were able to chip a few points off the EMU lead to head into the locker room down 19, 51-32.

Johnson scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half, including a perfect 4-for-4 line from behind the arc.

In the second half the Royals continued to hold at least a 20-point edge over the visiting team for most of the time frame. With just under five minutes left to play the WildCats began to find their stroke and put pressure on the EMU defense as a pair of layups by Rutschman and a three by Lekavicius made the score 74-60. A long ball by Pete Hamilton put the WildCats down only 10 with 1:27 left to play, but the Royals were finally able to suppress the Randolph offense with three straight points late in the game, capped by a Austin Twine (Dublin, Va./Pulaski Co.) layup with less than a minute left.

Pancione finished with 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals. Phillips had 11 points, and three rebounds in the win.

EMU will travel to Emory, Va., on Wednesday, January 21, for a 7 p.m., ODAC battle with Emory & Henry College.