Guilford College thwarted a late charge by the Eastern Mennonite University men's basketball team to come out on top of a 82-71 decision over the Royals Wednesday night in Harrisonburg, Va.

The Quakers improve to 18-4 overall on the season and 11-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. EMU drops to 14-8, 8-5 in the ODAC.

"Guilford is one of the top teams in our conference and they are extremely hard to defend," commented head coach Kirby Dean following the game. "You have to pick your poison, either you guard the best post player in the league and double team him and have their guards drain threes all day, or you take away the guards and have the inside game take you out. We played hard, but shots didn't fall for us and that's the nature of the game. We'll have to get back on the saddle this weekend."

The Royals were paced by 17 points from sophomore wing Todd Phillips (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro). Phillips had a team best nine rebounds and added three assists and a pair of steals.

D.J. Hinson (Newport News, Va./Menchville) had 15 points and seven boards while sophomore guard George Johnson (Richmond, Va./Miller School) chipped in 12 points and four assists.

Clay Henson led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. Henson was 5-of-8 from behind the arc and had five rebounds and three assists. Tyler Sanborn shot 5-of-8 from the field for 13 points, and tied teammate Matt Bonner with a team high eight rebounds.

The Royals never trailed by more than five points in the first half as EMU stuck with the larger Quaker squad. Guilford, which features a 6'9" center, used that height advantage in scoring 16 points in the paint during the first half. EMU turned the ball over six times in the half and saw the Quakers translate that into six points. Even with the height difference in the middle, the Royals were able to take a four-point deficit with 5:42 left in the first, and turn that into a four-point lead (31-27) as Josh Mallory (Round Hill, Va./Loudoun Valley), Phillips, and Hinson contributed to the EMU attack with Hinson draining one of his two three-pointers on the day.

The home teams margin grew to five (34-29, 2:00 remaining) before the Quakers fought back and tied the game before the end of the half as a Henson three put the score at 35 all.

Henson had 11 points in the first half.

After exchanging baskets with the Quakers throughout the first three minutes of the second half the Royals found themselves on the short end of a 7-0 run as buckets from Sanborn, George Neville, and Henson contributed to the surge. The GC lead grew to as much as 10 points on two different occasions midway through the half, but EMU, as they had done in the first half battled back. Baskets from Phillips and Orie Pancione (Augusta, WVa./Hampshire) put the score at 59-55 with 5:30 remaining.

The Royals continued to stay within striking distance, even with Bonner hitting a layup, plus one, to put Guilford up 68-59 (3:47). EMU responded and went on a 8-2 run as five points from Phillips and a pair of free throws cut the GC lead down to four (70-66, 2:19). Guilford, though, proved to be too strong for the Royals as back-to-back layups by Henson and Neville and a 6-for-6 performance from the charity stripe iced the win for the visiting team.

Guilford scored 26 points in the paint in the second stanza with Henson and Bonner leading the pack with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Sanborn and Neville each had six points.

Phillips scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half on 6-of-9 shooting from the field.

Pancione finished with eight points and six rebounds.

Next up for the Royals will be the final home game of the 2009 season as EMU welcomes in Roanoke College on Saturday, February 14, at 7 p.m.

Around the ODAC
Lynchburg - 55, Washington & Lee - 58
Roanoke - 63, Hampden-Sydney - 67
Randolph-Macon - 71, Bridgewater - 38