Being as cool as the other side of the pillow is a good thing. But being as cold as Saturday’s frigid weather is not. Unfortunately, the latter was the case for Eastern Mennonite’s basketball men, as they shot a season low 24.1% in a 63-42 loss to Randolph College at home. More importantly, the loss was particularly damaging to the men’s chances of hosting a First Round game in the ODAC Tournament.
The Royals fall to 5-9 in the ODAC, tied for ninth place with Bridgewater. They need to finish eighth or higher to secure a home game in that First Round.
So instead of being tied with Randolph and Hampden-Sydney for seventh in the league standings, and holding a head-to-head tie-breaker over the WildCats, the men sit a game behind H-SC for the final home game. The Tigers own the tie-breaker over Eastern Mennonite based on their win over EMU during the season.
For the Runnin Royals to get into the top eight, they need to win both of their remaining games (Washington and Lee and Guilford) and hope that Hampden-Sydney loses to both Randolph-Macon and Bridgewater in the season’s final week.
Saturday’s game against Randolph had an ominous start. The WildCats hit on their first possession but the score stayed 2-0 until 3:35 into the game. Jerome Jones (Charles Town, W.V./Washington) put in a layup then to lock things up at 2-2, but the men would struggle to put the ball in the net all half.
The Royals missed their first five three-pointer attempts and were down 16-5 midway through the first. After a make from Jerome Jones, the men missed their next eight from outside for a 1-for-14 start.
Maleke Jones (Charles Town, W.V./Washington) hit a three ball to finally get the men into double figures. But by then they trailed the WildCats, 32-10.
The Runnin Royals were held to just 13 points in the first half, and trailed 39-13 at the break. They shot 2-for-17 from long range and 19% overall, while Randolph canned 9-of-15 bombs in the first 20 minutes.
Despite holding the WildCats to 28% shooting in the second, EMU couldn’t get any momentum going, with their biggest run a 6-0 spurt on back-to-back threes from Maleke Jones.
The Royals finished just 5-34 from three point range as they had a season-low scoring output. Randolph had a 39% to 24% shooting margin.
Maleke Jones led EMU with nine points. Jerome Jones scored seven. Sammy Thomas (Owings, Md./Northern) had a team high seven rebounds and Isaiah Harris-Winn (Frederick, Md./St. Maria Goretti) added six. Xavier McCants (Olney, Md./Sherwood) was good for six points and three steals off the bench.
Josh Freund led Randolph with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
After having their three-game winning streak snapped, the men look to finish the season strong. They head to Washington and Lee on Wednesday.
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AFP
