BRIDGEWATER – Eastern Mennonite rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit Tuesday night to defeat Bridgewater, 70-67, in the opening round of the ODAC Men's Basketball Tournament.

With the loss Bridgewater ends its season with a 14-12 record while Eastern Mennonite (11-14) advances to play Randolph-Macon, the tournament No. 1 seed, in Friday's quarterfinals at the Salem Civic Center.

Bridgewater came out of the gate fast, scoring on its first three possessions to take a 6-0 lead, Josh Cammon scored on a pair of layups and Zach Breathwaite added an inside bucket for the Eagles.

EMU closed the gap to 10-8 on a bucket by Travis Clower, but the Eagles ran off the next six points to double the score. Ken Stanciel took a dish from Chandler Murray to score inside and Sami El-Rafey worked the paint for a bucket to make the score 14-8. Stanciel took another pass from Murray and scored again in the lane to put the Eagles up 16-8 with 13:29 left in the first half.

After a stick-back by EMU's Sammy Thomas, Breathwaite scored inside and TJ Turner knocked down a 3-pointer, giving the Eagles a double-digit lead, 21-10.

Bridgewater took its biggest lead of the first half when Breathwaite scored on the break for a 35-21 Eagles' lead with 3:14 left.

The Royals pulled to within seven, 38-31, when Maleke Jones hit 1-of-2 foul shots, but Breathwaite buried a 3-pointer from the right corner just before the halftime buzzer, giving the Eagles a 41-31 lead at the break.

The Royals scored on the first two possessions of the second half, both times on 3-pointers by Maleke Jones, to quickly cut the deficit to four, 41-37.

The Eagles maintained the lead until the midway point of the second half when Isaiah Harris-Winn hit two foul shots to give EMU its first lead of the game, 50-49, at the 10:37 mark.

Bridgewater regained the lead on a layup by Dimetri Chambers, but a 3-pointer by Maleke Jones and a layup by RaShawn Latimer put the visitors ahead 55-51 with 8:30 remaining.

Following a BC timeout, Breathwaite scored inside and, after a Royals' turnover, Chambers drove inside for a bucket to tie the score at 55-55 with 7:28 left to play.

Another EMU turnover and another layup by Chambers put the Eagles back on top 57-55, but Tariq Caldwell grabbed an offensive rebound and converted the bucket to knot the score at 57-57.

After an Eagles miss, Clower hit from beyond the arc for a 60-57 Royals' lead with 5:53 left. Cammon answered with a layup for the Eagles, but Latimer hit from long range to put the Royals up by four, 63-59.

Two foul shots by Harris-Winn gave EMU its biggest lead, 65-59, with 2:18 remaining, but a 3-pointer by Turner sliced the deficit in half as the Eagles trailed by three, 65-62.

EMU's Latimer missed a 3-pointer on the next trip, but Christian Hansen pulled down a big offensive rebound and scored to make it a five-point game, 67-62, with 1:30 to go.

Stanciel hit two foul shots for Bridgewater, but Harris-Winn scored at the other end to put the lead back to five, 69-64, with 55 seconds left.

Chambers drained 3-pointer to pull the Eagles within two and then Stanciel came away with a big steal, giving the Eagles possession with 20 seconds left.

Chambers drove into the lane, but his shot attempt was blocked out of bounds by Hansen. The Eagles then inbounded the ball to Turner, but his 3-point shot from the corner was blocked out of bounds by Hansen with five seconds left.

Bridgewater got the ball inbounds again, this time to Breathwaite and the Eagles' big man was fouled with 3.5 seconds remaining. Breathwaite missed the first foul shot and then attempted to miss the second on purpose, but a lane violation turned the ball over to the Royals.

Clower was fouled with 2.2 seconds left and made the first foul shot to put the Royals ahead by three, 70-67. Clower missed the second and Stanciel gathered in the rebound, but his desperation heave from 75 feet was not close as the Royals left Nininger Hall with the three-point victory.

Maleke Jones led the Royals with 20 points and Harris-Winn added 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Breathwaite scored a season-high 16 points while Cammon and Chambers each finished with 13 points. Breathwaite, a junior transfer from Oxford College of Emory University, scored his 1,000 collegiate point during the game. Chambers finished his first year with 398 points.