By Sydney Anderson '13

WINCHESTER, Va.-- Shenandoah used a strong defensive effort to defeat Eastern Mennonite 87-69 in ODAC men's basketball action Wednesday night.

The Hornets (8-8, 3-4 ODAC) shot 47 percent from the field (33-of-71) to end an 11-game losing streak to the Royals (6-9,1-6).

After EMU opened the contest by scoring nine of the first 13 points of the game, Shenandoah answered with 11 of the next 16 points to take a 15-14 lead with 12:27 remaining in the first.

SU would never trail again.

A second Shenandoah run, this one 10-0 from the 9:12 to 7:17 marks, gave the hosts the lead for good.

The Hornets had an 11-point, 47-36, lead at the break.

The lead remained in double digits the rest of the way and ballooned to 23 points following a Gustavo Gonzalez 3-pointer with 4:46 left.

Jonah Meredith led the hosts in scoring with 14 points, five rebounds and three steals with classmate Aaron Patterson adding 13 points.

All 13 SU players to saw action scored at least two points.

Derrick Perry and Christopher Chaney led the defensive effort with four blocks and seven rebounds, respectively.

RaShawn Latimer led all scorers with 16 points and pulled down 2 rebounds for the visitors.

"After coming off two tough loses we came out with a great energy," SU coach Adam Walsh said. "With effort like this on the defensive side, we are going to be able to keep our losing streak short and get back in the win column quickly.

"We were able to hold them under 40 percent from the floor and that was a goal for us. If we can continue that defensive effort we should see success moving forward. It was nice to get everyone who entered the game to score, it brought a lot of energy tonight. That was some fun basketball."

Shenandoah travels to Lynchburg on Saturday for a 4:30 tip.

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