Box Score SALEM - The Roanoke men's basketball team came up short in a late game rally, falling to Eastern Mennonite University 82-76 in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play. The Maroons now hold a record of 4-2 (0-2 ODAC), while the Royals are 5-1 (1-1 ODAC).

Kwasi Amponsah led the Maroons with 24 points and four steals. He also tallied four rebounds and five assists in the loss. He shot 12-13 from the free-throw line, marking a new career-high for the senior. With his 24 points, he is now just 12 away from scoring his 1,000^th career point.

Daniel Eacho finished the contest with 14 points and a team-eight rebounds. Jordan Thacker also finished in double-digits with 10 points and five rebounds. Julian Ramirez continues to lead the team in assists (5.5 APG), finishing with seven in the contest.

Eastern Mennonite's Andrew Thorne put up 21 points in the game, as well as a team-tying seven rebounds. He was 9-14 from the field. Also in double-digits for the Royals were Owen Longacre with 14 points, and Dajon Daniel and R.J. Sims with 11 points each.


With 8:54 to play in the first half, Roanoke led 27-26, but over the course of those nine minutes, the Royals went on a 15-6 run to end the period. After the first 20 minutes, Eastern Mennonite led 42-33.

To open the second half, the Royals scored back to back baskets to extend its lead to 12, 46-34. The Maroons responded with five points of their own, with a layup by Julian Ramirez and a three-pointer by Jordan Thacker, assisted by Ramirez. At the 11:09 mark, Amponsah was fouled shooting a three, and connected on all three free throws, pulling Roanoke within five, 53-48. Three minutes later, Jordan Thacker dropped one in for two, closing the gap at four points, 56-52.

Roanoke cut the deficit to one after Amponsah tallied a steal, got fouled, then put away two free throws, making the score 61-60. EMU's Dajon Daniel responded with six straight points to put the Royals back up by seven, 67-60 with 5:29 to play. Roanoke continued to battle back, as Ramirez hit back-to-back fast break layups, getting the Maroons within one, 72-71. After EMU missed two free throws, Amponsah drilled a trey to put Roanoke up two 74-72. The Royal's Owen Longacre responded with a three of his own to go up one 75-74.

Eastern Mennonite connected on free throws down the stretch to hold on to the lead, ultimately winning the contest

Both teams traded baskets to extend the score to 77-76, with Eastern Mennonite holding the lead with 50 seconds to play.

The Royals outshot the Maroons 46.8 to 44.8 percent, while the Maroons led from behind the arc 26.3 to 23.5 percent. The Maroons also led in assists 16-9, but also tallied 22 turnovers to Eastern Mennonite's 16. Each team also tallied 12 steals.

The Maroons return to action on Saturday, December 8^th as they head in to four-straight road games. Roanoke will face off against Hampden-Sydney at 2:00 PM.


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