Harrisonburg, Va. --- The men's basketball team fell to Eastern Mennonite, 71-68 on the Royals' senior night yesterday. The men finished the regular season at 17-8, 11-7 in the ODAC while EMU finished with a 9-16 record overall and 5-13 in the ODAC.

Bradley Parkes had a team-high 21 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double this season while Lyons added 13 points to the EMU attack. Bailey had four points, seven rebounds, and five blocked shots for EMU, which lost to Roanoke in the first round of the ODAC Tournament last year.

Josh LaPorte was the total package for the Maroons as he led the squad with 16 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots while Zach Milton had 12 points. LaPorte moved into third all-time in career blocked shots with 119 for his career. He has 230 career assists, nine behind Brad Dunleavy '01 for 10^th all-time and passed James Pennix '88 for fifth in career steals. His performance tonight gave him 900 career points and 800 career rebounds, which is fourth all-time.

Keith Carter tied a career-high nine assists in addition to five points and three rebounds. He moved into fifth all-time in assists, passing Reggie Thomas '85 with 293 for his career. Melvin Felix had six points, four rebounds and three assists. Aaron Tyson had seven points and seven rebounds while Curtis Peery added nine points and eight rebounds.

Both teams battled for the lead in the first 10 minutes of the game before the Royals were able to take an eventual six-point lead off a lay-up by Todd Phillips. The lead eventually evaporated as the Maroons grabbed a one-point lead on three different occasions. There were seven lead changes in the final five minutes. EMU pulled ahead by nine to end the half as sophomore guard Austin Twine hit a fall away jumper from just outside the charity stripe as time expired.

The Royals jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first nine minutes of the second half as Page Moir called timeout to regroup. His strategy seemed to work as LaPorte and company fought back to erase the Royals' lead with less than five minutes remaining.

After an EMU timeout, Milton's lay-up gave the Maroons their first lead of the second half. EMU quickly switched the advantage back in their favor with a bucket from D.J. Hinson. The freshman wing then raced down the court and blocked a LaPorte lay-up to give the ball back to EMU.

The Royals held a slim four-point advantage as time wound down with the Maroons unable to get the ball to bounce their way with EMU closing out the regular season on a high note.

Phillips finished with five points, seven rebounds, and four assists off the bench for EMU. Hinson added 11 points to pace the Royals.

The men will await word from the ODAC today to determine what seed and their opponent for this weekend's ODAC Tournament held Feb. 29-Mar. 2. The men advanced to the ODAC Championship game a year ago for the first time since 2001.

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