HARRISONBURG, VA-Led by a career-high 23 points from
Curtis Peery and a double-double from
Josh LaPorte, the Roanoke College men's basketball team led wire-to-wire in a 78-58 win at Eastern Mennonite on Saturday. The Maroons, who have now won five straight games, improve to 6-7, 2-4 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The win was the first for the Maroons at EMU since the 2003-04 season.
On Eastern Mennonite's second possession of the game, Roanoke sophomore Zach Milton created a steal, but missed the ensuing fastbreak layup. Peery, however, collected the rebound and stuck in the put-back to give the Maroons the lead for good. Feeding off a defensive effort that forced four EMU turnovers on the first five possessions, the Maroons jumped out to an 8-0 lead. After EMU got on the board with two foul shots, Milton hit a three and Ben Lawler finished a Keith Carter pass and the Maroons led 13-2.
After Carter hit a running jumper with 5:58 to play in the first to give the Maroons a 27-13 lead, the Royals used their up-tempo style to go on a 8-0 run to trim Roanoke's lead to just six points, 27-21. After a Maroon timeout, Peery drained a 15-foot elbow jumper to push Roanoke's lead to 29-21. Following an EMU miss, Roanoke sophomore Aaron Tyson knocked down a seven-foot hook at the halftime buzzer to give Roanoke a 31-21 intermission break.
A Roanoke turnover to start the second half allowed the Royals to cut the lead to eight, but not too long after Tee Jackson came off a screen at the top of the key and hit a three-pointer to give the Maroons a double-digit lead they would never relinquish. Roanoke's advantage hit a game-high 22 points twice, the second on a late Kendrick Chittock three-pointer.
Roanoke's defense limited the Royals to just eight first half field goals and a 33.3 shooting percentage in the first half. After giving up four offensive rebounds in the first half, the Maroons allowed just one in the second half. The Maroons, in fact, allowed the Royals to get just seven second half rebounds. A big part of that came thanks to Roanoke making 16 of its 25 shots in the second half and also getting five second half offensive rebounds.
Peery finished with 23 points, surpassing his previous career-high of 22, while LaPorte had 13 points and 10 rebounds, his second of the year. Carter came off the bench to score eight points and add four assists.
Roanoke vs. Eastern Mennonite Box Score
