{"id":25960,"date":"2015-11-12T08:44:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T13:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=25960"},"modified":"2015-11-24T09:51:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T14:51:06","slug":"royals-basketball-begins-season-play-with-jess-rheinheimer-and-the-jones-brothers-in-key-roles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/royals-basketball-begins-season-play-with-jess-rheinheimer-and-the-jones-brothers-in-key-roles\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals basketball begins season play with Jess Rheinheimer and the Jones brothers in key roles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior Jess Rheinheimer<\/a> and sophomore twins Maleke<\/a> and Jerome Jones<\/a> lead the women\u2019s and men\u2019s basketball teams into the 2015-16 season with the first games of the season beginning in mid-November.<\/p>\n

Preseason polling ranked the women second<\/a> and the men eighth<\/a> in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference<\/a> (ODAC).<\/p>\n

The men play their first conference game Nov. 29 at Randolph and the women host Lynchburg Nov. 24.<\/p>\n

A variety of season ticket packages<\/a> for men’s only, women’s only or a combo of all men’s and women’s home games are offered. EMU\u2019s home games routinely host large crowds, with an average of 393 fans for the women\u2019s games, a statistic that leading the ODAC and puts EMU 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.<\/p>\n

Fans will definitely want to cheer the women on at home:\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Rheinheimer back for senior campaign<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Despite the loss of five seniors, the ODAC’s coaches aren’t expecting much of a fall off for EMU’s women.<\/p>\n

Eastern Mennonite, riding a string of three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, received three first-place votes and totaled 106 points in the voting.\u00a0 Lynchburg College earned six first-place votes and 114 total points to claim the top spot.<\/p>\n

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 Kevin Griffin<\/a> claimed his third straight and fourth overall ODAC Coach of the Year award<\/p>\n

The Royals return three starters, including the ODAC Player of the Year and All-America forward Jess Rheinheimer<\/strong><\/a> (Manheim, Pa.\/Lancaster Mennonite).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

The women also return senior point guard Alicia Ygarza<\/strong><\/a> (Conestoga, Pa.\/Penn Manor) (2.3ppg, 4.1rpg, 2.2apg) and sophomore guard\/forward Sa’Mone Moore<\/strong><\/a> (Covington, Va.\/Covington) (6.3ppg, 2.0rpg).<\/p>\n

Click here to see the entire 2015-16 EMU women’s basketball schedule.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jones twins lead young squad<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As could be expected, the ODAC coaches see that EMU’s basketball men have some rebuilding to do.\u00a0 A year after finishing fourth in the standings, the Runnin Royals were tabbed to finish eighth in the nation’s toughest conference.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to improve every game no matter what happens,” said coach Kirby Dean<\/a>, the 2010 ODAC Coach of the Year.\u00a0 “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.”<\/p>\n

Eastern Mennonite returns just six men from last year’s roster, all sophomores.\u00a0 Including All-ODAC performers David Falk<\/strong> and Marcel Crump<\/strong>, the men lost six seniors from a 17-10 squad.\u00a0 Five of them started during the postseason run into the ODAC Semifinals.<\/p>\n

Jerome Jones<\/strong><\/a> (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.\u00a0 He shot 36.2% from three-point range and scored in double figures in ten games.\u00a0 His twin brother, Maleke Jones<\/strong><\/a> (Charles Town, W.V.\/Washington), expects to elevate after being the backup point guard last year.\u00a0 RaShawn Latimer<\/strong><\/a> (Warrenton, Va.\/Kettle Run) shot a team-best 40.0% from outside and averaged 3.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

The Runnin\u2019 Royals open the new year Saturday, Nov. 14, hosting Virginia University of Lynchburg 30 minutes following the completion of the women\u2019s game, or approximately 6:30 p.m.\u00a0 The men play just two games in Yoder Arena over the first semester.\u00a0 They also play at D-I James Madison University on Tuesday, Nov. 24.<\/p>\n

Click here to see the entire 2015-16 EMU men’s basketball schedule.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Jess Rheinheimer and sophomore twins Maleke and Jerome Jones lead the women\u2019s and men\u2019s basketball teams into the 2015-16 season with the first games of the season beginning in ... read more about Royals basketball begins season play with Jess Rheinheimer and the Jones brothers in key roles<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4522,5173],"tags":[14654,13942,16214,14327,8366,5674,17111,15216,16195],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-25960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball","category-womens-basketball","tag-alicia-ygarza","tag-david-falk","tag-jerome-jones","tag-jess-rheinheimer","tag-kevin-griffin","tag-kirby-dean","tag-maleke-jones","tag-marcel-crump","tag-samone-moore"],"yoast_head":"\nRoyals basketball begins season play with Jess Rheinheimer and the Jones brothers in key roles - 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