The men's basketball team defeated Bridgewater, 78-61 to close out the home portion of its regular season on Wednesday evening. The Maroons improved to 17-7 overall and 11-6 in the ODAC. The Eagles dropped to 12-12, 7-10 in the ODAC. The 11 conference wins match last season's win total and is the first back-to-back 11-ODAC win seasons since 2001-03. The 34 two-year win total is the most since 1999-01.

Before the game, the seniors were honored just before tip-off. It was the final game in the Bast Gym for Keith Carter, AJ Dowell, Josh LaPorte, Jeff Leiter, Ben Shrader and Ty Sigmon. This class has won a combined 63 games and 39 wins in the ODAC over the last four seasons.

Roanoke won the battle of the boards, 40-38 and had six blocked shots and dished out 22 assists. The Maroons outscored the Eagles, 32-26 in the paint. The men held the Eagles to 36% from the field while shooting 43%, 38% from beyond the arc.

The Maroons got off to a great start as Leiter and Shrader hit three three-pointers to give them a 9-0 lead early. They built their lead as high as 24 off a Curtis Peery lay-up just before the half as the Maroons went into the locker room with a 44-23 advantage.

Bridgewater started to close in on Roanoke's big lead. Down 51-29 with 16 minutes remaining, the Eagles mounted a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to close the gap to 12, 53-41.

The Eagles got within 10 points after a made lay-up by Justin Reavis with 3:21 left. The Maroons closed the contest scoring 10 of the games' final 13 points, including 6-of-6 from the charity stripe to seal the win.

Leiter had a career-high 18 points off a career-best six three-pointers in his first start of the season. His six three's in the first half was a new school-record. Melvin Felix had 13 points for his fifth game in double-figures in the last six games. Peery chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds. Carter dished out team-best six assists.

LaPorte finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots and two steals to pace the Maroons. He passed James Pennix '88 for fifth all-time in steals with 172. His three blocked shots tied Derek Otten '92 for third all-time in that category. He now has 229 assists and needs only nine more to pass Brad Dunleavy '01 for 10^th all-time.

The Eagles were led by Michael Oblitey and Reavis with 12 points each. Dominic Trawick had seven points and four rebounds while Reavis added seven rebounds.

The Maroons will travel to Harrisonburg, Va. for their final game of the regular season vs. Eastern Mennonite. The Maroons took an 84-66 win at home on Jan. 19 and have won five out of the last six meetings. The men will look to sweep the Royals for the second-straight season, the first time since 2001-03. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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