In the men’s one-point win against Shenandoah Feb. 3, Jones showed just how clutch he is when he drew the foul and hit the game-winning free throw.  Three days later against Randolph-Macon, he broke a 65-65 tie with four straight points in the final minute to propel Eastern Mennonite to a 73-71 win. For his efforts, he was named the Royals Athlete of the Week.

“My expectation is that he’ll be first team all-league because there’s no reason for him not to be,” said Coach .

Jones was never the go-to player for his high school team. Dean recalls that when he was recruiting Jones in high school, he was the fourth option behind his twin brother (Charles Town, W.V./Washington).

Jones says his role  is much different than what was expected of him last year.

“My role now is facilitating the score whenever I can,” said Jones, who is a captain.  “Everyone always comes to me with questions and I like it.  I was vocal last year but this year I don’t have an option but to be, so I’m way more vocal.”

He is averaging 10.1 points, 2.9 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.  He is also one of the best three-point shooters in the ODAC at 47.4%.

“Personally I thought I couldn’t really shoot last year,” Jones admitted.  “So all summer I worked on ball handling and shooting.  Now I’m shooting close to 50 percent from three so that really improved and I have more control over the ball this year.  Defensively, Coach said I’m one of the top on-ball defenders so I think that improved, too.  But I always want to get better at defense and getting other people involved.  I don’t like feeling too selfish on the court but apparently I need to be that way for us to win.”

Maleke did not come up with this conclusion. His coaches did.

“To me he’s the most important player,” Dean said.  “We do efficiency ratings on our kids based on criteria established by the NBA where we plug in all of their stats and it produces a number that says how efficient they are. He’s been our most efficient player all year long. That’s a nice way of saying he’s probably our most important or most valuable player. He kind of needs to grow into that role because he’s never been that guy. But Maleke is coming into his own and he needs to continue to do that because he is really talented. He can’t just settle for being a good player; he has to be the player of the year in our league next year. In my opinion, he has that kind of talent.”

Preseason polling ranked the and the in the (ODAC).

The men play their first conference game Nov. 29 at Randolph and the women host Lynchburg Nov. 24.

A for men’s only, women’s only or a combo of all men’s and women’s home games are offered. ĚÇĐÄVlog’s home games routinely host large crowds, with an average of 393 fans for the women’s games, a statistic that leading the ODAC and puts ĚÇĐÄVlog 39th in the nation among D-III teams. The men averaged 757 for their games, third in the ODAC and 28th out of 417 D-III team s in the nation.

Fans will definitely want to cheer the women on at home:  the Royals (88-22 over the past four years) also take a 30-game home winning streak into this season, with a 54-49 setback against Elizabethtown on Jan. 7, 2013, standing as their last loss in Yoder Arena.

Rheinheimer back for senior campaign

Despite the loss of five seniors, the ODAC’s coaches aren’t expecting much of a fall off for ĚÇĐÄVlog’s women.

Eastern Mennonite, riding a string of three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, received three first-place votes and totaled 106 points in the voting.  Lynchburg College earned six first-place votes and 114 total points to claim the top spot.

The Royals had a nice postseason run in 2014-15, earning a thrilling win over LaRoche in the NCAA First Round before falling to eventual national champion Thomas More. Coach claimed his third straight and fourth overall ODAC Coach of the Year award

The Royals return three starters, including the ODAC Player of the Year and All-America forward (Manheim, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite).  A 5-10 senior, Rheinheimer scored 20.0 points with 7.8 rebounds per game last year. She was named ODAC Player of the Year and was a D3hoops.com All-America Fourth Team honoree. She was recently named to the D3hoops.com Preseason All-America First Team.

The women also return senior point guard (Conestoga, Pa./Penn Manor) (2.3ppg, 4.1rpg, 2.2apg) and sophomore guard/forward (Covington, Va./Covington) (6.3ppg, 2.0rpg).

Jones twins lead young squad

As could be expected, the ODAC coaches see that ĚÇĐÄVlog’s basketball men have some rebuilding to do.  A year after finishing fourth in the standings, the Runnin Royals were tabbed to finish eighth in the nation’s toughest conference.

“Our goal is to improve every game no matter what happens,” said coach , the 2010 ODAC Coach of the Year.  “Our kids are mature enough to understand that we’re in a really, really tough league, but if we can keep everyone together, we can be one of the best teams in the league again, and probably sooner rather than later.”

Eastern Mennonite returns just six men from last year’s roster, all sophomores.  Including All-ODAC performers David Falk and Marcel Crump, the men lost six seniors from a 17-10 squad.  Five of them started during the postseason run into the ODAC Semifinals.

(Charles Town, W.V./Washington) started 14 games as a freshman in 2014-15, and was fifth on the team with a 7.6 scoring average.  He shot 36.2% from three-point range and scored in double figures in ten games.  His twin brother, (Charles Town, W.V./Washington), expects to elevate after being the backup point guard last year.  (Warrenton, Va./Kettle Run) shot a team-best 40.0% from outside and averaged 3.8 points per game.

The Runnin’ Royals open the new year Saturday, Nov. 14, hosting Virginia University of Lynchburg 30 minutes following the completion of the women’s game, or approximately 6:30 p.m.  The men play just two games in Yoder Arena over the first semester.  They also play at D-I James Madison University on Tuesday, Nov. 24.