SALEM, VA--Playing in their final game in front of a home crowd, Roanoke College seniors Robby Pridgen (Akron, OH/St. Vincent-St. Mary) and Heath Puckett (Bland, VA/Bland) each scored career-highs to lead the men's basketball team to a 93-74 win over Eastern Mennonite University on Tuesday night. The Maroons improve to 14-11 on the season and finish their regular season Old Dominion Athletic Conference with an 11-7 record. Eastern Mennonite's season comes to an end with a 3-22 mark, 1-17 in the league. The Maroons will be the fourth seed in the ODAC tournament and will play Guilford College at 3:00pm at the Salem Civic Center this coming Saturday. The Maroons and Quakers split the regular season meetings, with each team winning at home.
Pridgen finished Tuesday's game with a career-high 38 points and set a new college record with nine three-pointers. He broke the old mark of eight which was set by Paris Butler against EMU as well, that during the 1999-2000 season. Pridgen made 12 of his 19 shots in the game and also finished with four assists and a steal. Puckett scored a career-best 15 points in the game, hitting all but one of his eight shots. He also grabbed seven rebounds, and sparked a 12-2 Roanoke run in the first half that opened up a double-digit lead. Puckett scored eight of those 12 points, two coming on a dunk with 8:56 to go that got the streak started. Puckett bested his previous career-high by one point. Jason Graffam (Vienna, VA/Marshall) also reached double-figures in the scoring column, getting 14. He also added seven boards, as did two other Maroons.
The Maroons held a slim one-point lead, 19-18, with 9:29 to play in the first half, but used that 12-2 run to open up an 11-point cushion, 31-20. Kevinn Hunter (Dale City, VA/Gar-Field) made a layup with 38 seconds to go and the Maroons had their largest lead of the first half, 20 points (46-26). The Royals made things interesting early in the second half, using an 11-2 run to open the half to get Roanoke's lead down to nine, 48-39. Puckett had Roanoke's lone basket of the run. The Pridgen-Puckett duo quickly got Roanoke's lead back to double-digits, where it would stay the rest of the game. Pridgen made five of his nine three-pointers in the second half to help the team build as much as a 27-point lead.
Bryan Williams' 15 points led all Eastern Mennonite scorers in the ball game, with sophomore EJ Arrington adding 12. The Royals did force 14 Roanoke turnovers, getting 11 steals in the contest.
In the ODAC tournament's other games, #1 Randolph-Macon plays #8 Washington & Lee (1:00pm), #2 Hampden-Sydney plays #7 Bridgewater (6:00), and #3 Virginia Wesleyan takes on #6 Emory & Henry (8:00). Sunday's semifinal games are at 2:00 and 4:00 and the championship game on Monday tips-off at 7:00pm. All games will be played at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, VA.
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