The Runnin Royals played one of their finest halves of basketball Tuesday night, holding the ODAC's top team, Virginia Wesleyan, to just 23 points on 26% shooting.  However, the half followed a half of reversed fortunes, as the Marlins used all of their 37-20 halftime lead to hold on to a 60-55 decision in Virginia Beach.

Eastern Mennonite scored first on the road, and Andrew Thorne's (Front Royal, VA/Skyline) dunk 2:25 into the contest gave the men a 4-1 lead.  VWC caught fire from there and within seven minutes had surged ahead 19-9.  The Marlins led by as many as 19 points during the opening 20 minutes.

A few minutes into the second, the Royals turned on the defense.  Over a span of four minutes, the men forced their hosts into five turnovers and four missed shots to break out on an 11-0 run to trim the lead to 41-36.

After a stretch of back-and-forth scoring, Dajon Daniel (Fredericksburg, VA/Mountain View) capped a 6-0 run with two free throws to get EMU within 53-51 with 5:27 to play.  The Marlins slowly got the lead back up to five points, but another steal and bucket from Daniel made it a one possession game at 58-55 with 28 seconds left.

With the shot clock turned off, the men were forced to foul.  VWC made only 1-of-2 free throws with 24 seconds to go, but a key offensive rebound gave them another chance at the free throw line.  One more make pushed the edge to 60-55.  With precious seconds ticking away, Owen Longacre (Telford, PA/Christopher Dock) missed a three pointer with nine seconds left and the Royals wouldn't get another shot.

EMU forced 16 turnovers and committed only 13 of their own, but gave up 19 offensive rebounds.  Virginia Wesleyan finished with a 52-45 edge on the boards.  Neither team shot well: the Royals connected on 34% of their shots compared to 35% for VWC.

Thorne topped all scorers with 18 points and had nine rebounds to just miss a double double.  R.J. Sims (Fort Washington, MD/Friendly) added 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Longacre and Daniel each had six rebounds, with Daniel picked a pair of steals.  Adam Burroughs (Roanoke, VA/Northside) also had two picks, while Dorian Valentine (Bassett, VA/Carlisle) grabbed five rebounds.

Despite the good second half, the loss drops Eastern Mennonite to 10-6 overall and 3-4 in the ODAC.  They get one more of the league's top teams this Saturday, when they host Hampden-Sydney at 7:00pm.  The Tigers are one of three teams with a 5-1 record in the conference.