HARRISONBURG, Va. -- The Methodist men's basketball team rallied from a pair of large deficits but ultimately fell at Eastern Mennonite, 84-75, on Friday evening at Yoder Arena.
 
MU (0-2) fell behind by 13 points in the first half and 16 points in the second half, both times trimming its deficit to single digits, but clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch enabled the Royals to claim the nine-point win and improve to 1-1 on the season.
 
Jackson Whitley led MU with his second double-double of the season. He scored 18 points on 8 of 13 shooting from the field and added 12 rebounds (7 offensive). Davion Ayabarreno and Rae Hill each scored a team-high 19 points. For Eastern Mennonite, Khalil Davis scored a game-high 21 points and Maleke Jones scored 15.
 
The Monarchs opened the contest by taking a 10-7 lead less than four minutes in before EMU rattled off  a 13-0 run to open a 20-10 lead by the 11:28 mark. The Royals led by 13 points (33-20) with just over five minutes left in the opening stanza before the first of MU's rallies.
 
Methodist outscored EMU 15-4 capped by a buck from Ayabarreno with 57 seconds remaining to pull within 37-35 before the break. Four straight points by the Royals made it 41-35 at intermission.
 
In the second half, MU once again got within two points (43-41) on a bucket by Ayabarreno with 14:53 to play, but the Royals outscore the Green and Gold 11-2 over the next 2:30 to go up 54-43. The Royals' lead grew to as many as 16 points before a late MU push got the Monarchs to within six (76-70) on a Blake Davis bucket with just over a minute to play.
 
The Monarchs were unable to get any closer as the Royals made each of their final six free-throw attempts in the final minute to pull out the win.
 
As a team MU shot 41.7 percent from the field (30-72) to EMU's 42.2 percent (27-64). Eastern Mennonite benefited from a huge advantage in three-point shooting, hitting 25.0 percent (7-28) of its attempts to just 5.6 percent (1-18) for Methodist. The Monarchs held a 44-39 edge on the glass and recorded 17 assists to 15 for the Royals.
 
The Monarchs are back in action on Saturday at EMU when they take on Bridgewater at 1:00 pm.