BRIDGEWATER, Va. - Bridgewater College senior Dominic Trawick scored a career-high 36 points Saturday night to help lead the Eagles to an 89-83 ODAC victory over seventh-ranked Eastern Mennonite in front of a packed house at Nininger Hall.

""We knew we had to defend in order to have a chance to win and our guys did that," Bridgewater College head coach Don Burgess said. "That was a great team effort. Dom and Jake Johnson carried the scoring load, but we had a lot of solid contributions from a lot of different people."

Both teams were forced to dodge foul trouble throughout the contest as a total of 68 fouls were called. The Eagles led 38-35 after a foul-plagued first half that saw each squad whistled for 17 fouls.

Trawick's 3-pointer with 14:10 left in the second half gave the Eagles a nine-point lead, but the BC senior picked up his fourth foul on the next trip on defense with 14:01 remaining.

With Trawick on the bench, the Eagles not only were able to maintain the lead, they were able to stretch it to double figures.

"Our guys get a lot of valuable reps in practice," Burgess added. "Our practices prepared the guys and had them ready when they were called on tonight. With Dom on the bench, other guys stepped up and held the lead."

The Royals cut the margin to five before two layups by Segar Jordan and one by Jake Johnson pushed themargin to 11, 57-46, with 10:49 left in the game.

A 3-pointer by EMU's D.J. Hinson cut the margin to four with 5:22 to play, but the Eagles answered with an 8-0 run to maintain the upper hand. A layup by Rick Maloney and a runner by Joey Geary gave the Eagles a 70-66 lead with 4:22 left. Trawick and Jake Johnson added buckets to make it a 12-point BC lead with 4:04 left.

Two free throws by Johnson with 1:48 left put the Eagles up by 14 and they held on down the stretch for the 98-83 win.

Trawick hit 9-of-16 shots from the floor, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, and 14-of-18 from the foul line for his 36 points. Johnson finished with 21 for the Eagles.

"Dom continues to have an X on his back," said Burgess. "But he's still scoring, rebounding and defending. Jake stepped up and scored for us, but so did a lot of other people. Freshmen Lyndon Humphries, Kordero Thompson and Joey Geary gave us valuable minutes. Drew Maynard was solid at the point and Cody Griffith played well. Kyle Hammond and Rick Maloney played well off the bench Segar and (Justin) Brake battled on the boards. Everyone who played gave us some positve contributions."

Hinson led five EMU players in double figures with 20 points. Austin Twine scored 16 followed by Todd Phillips with 13, Eli Crawford with 12 and George Johnson with 11.

The Eagles held a 51-39 lead on the boards with Trawick leading the way with eight. Phillips completed a double-double with 12 boards for the Royals.

With the victory, Bridgewater improved to 6-9 overall and 4-5 in the ODAC. The loss was the first conference loss for the Royals, now 14-2 overall and 8-1 in the ODAC.