EMORY, Va. -- Virginia Wesleyan College's men's basketball team closed the first half with a 20-4 scoring run to open a 41-19 lead at halftime and never let up in a 88-54 Old Dominion Athletic Conference victory at Emory & Henry College.

Senior Breven Lyons (Newport News/Warwick) scored eight points in the first-half scoring surge and senior Cam Owens (Centreville/Centreville) added seven more as the No. 8 ranked Marlins (18-3, 10-2 ODAC) pulled away early from the host Wasps (3-17, 2-7 ODAC).

Senior Greg Montgomery (Virginia Beach/Princess Anne) scored the game's first basket and Owens and sophomore Khory Moore (Arlington/Wakefield School) followed with scores to build a 6-0 lead for the Marlins, who never trailed.

Scoring by Josh Hess (Abingdon/Abingdon), John Shelor (Giles/Giles), and Brandon Self (Norfolk/Norfolk Collegiate) enabled the Wasps to cut the VWC lead to five points several times in the second half, but the Marlins always came back with the answering offense. Sophomore Tim Jones (Richmond/Henrico) and Owens hit back-to-back triples to help spark VWC's first-half scoring run that helped the Marlins establish a comfortable lead for the remainder of the game.

Eighteen Marlins competed in the contest and 13 scored, led by Owens with 17 ponts, Moore with 16, junior Nick Doyle (Southampton/Franklin) with 12, and Jones with 10. Doyle connected on 4-of-6 three-point attempts, helping VWC to an 11-of-29 showing from behind the arc. Virginia Wesleyan has now won 87-of-103 games when the Marlins hit 10 or more triples.

Virginia Wesleyan also won the rebounding battle, 41-33, led by Montgomery with eight and senior Brandon Mitchell (Albany, Ga./Westover) with seven. Owens came through with a career-high three blocks and Jones and Moore produced a game-high four steals each.

Kevin Anzenberger (Concord, N.C./Jay M. Robinson) and Noah Walker (Bristol, Va./Virginia High) led Emory & Henry with 12 points each. Myles Turner (Richmond/Thomas Dale) pulled down eight rebounds and distributed six assists.

Virginia Wesleyan competes again on Wednesday, Feb. 11, playingan ODAC contest at Eastern Mennonite University beginning at 7 p.m.

--AMDG--