EMORY, Va. — The Washington and Lee men's basketball team had three players score at least 20 points, and W&L made 23-of-24 (95.8 percent) free throws on its way to a 92-87 victory at Emory & Henry on Wednesday.

The Generals (15-9, 10-5 ODAC) trailed, 7-6, with 16:01 left in the first half, but then four straight points by junior guard Devin Kearns (Cibolo, Texas/Samuel Clemens) and a three-pointer by sophomore guard Kevin Dennin (Severna Park, Md./Severn School) gave the Blue and White a 13-7 edge at the 14:38 mark.

A triple by senior guard John Shelor halted the Blue and White's mini run, but senior forward Nicholas George (Charleston, W.Va./Charleston Catholic) answered with a three-pointer to extend the margin to 16-10 with 13:58 left in the half. Following an old-fashioned three-point play by senior forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) and a jumper by junior guard Alex Starr (Upper Saddle River, N.J./Northern Highlands Regional) sandwiched around a three by senior forward Chase Branscomb, the Generals assumed a 21-13 lead at the 12:28 mark.

The Wasps trimmed the deficit to 24-19 with 10:31 left in the stanza, but W&L reeled off five straight points to grab a 10-point advantage (29-19) with 9:47 remaining in the half. The Blue and White gradually extended the lead over the final 10 minutes, taking a 47-34 advantage into intermission.

The margin varied between 12 and 17 points through the first 11 minutes of the second half, with the Generals holding a 73-56 lead at the 9:18 mark. A three-pointer by senior guard Johnny McLean on E&H's next offensive trip ignited a 13-0 spurt for the Wasps, and the W&L lead was just four (73-69) with 5:45 left in the contest.

A pair of free throws by Kearns ended the E&H onslaught, but a layup by sophomore guard Daniel Spencer brought the Wasps back to within four, 75-71, at the 4:57 mark. The Generals then scored four straight points on back-to-back layups by Murtha and Kearns to extend the margin to eight (79-71) with 3:43 to go in the game.

E&H tallied seven of the next nine points to trim the gap to 81-78 at the 1:58 mark, but the Generals made six straight free throws to reestablish a nine-point lead with 43 seconds on the clock. The Wasps continued to play the foul game in the final minute, but the Blue and White was nearly perfect from the line to hold on for the victory.

Murtha led the team with 25 points and nine rebounds. He shot 9-of-12 from the floor and was a perfect 7-of-7 from the foul line. Kearns totaled 20 points and three rebounds. He is now just 18 points away from becoming the 26th player in program history to register 1,000 in his career. George was 5-of-6 from the field, 4-of-4 from downtown and 6-of-6 from the foul line to record 20 points.

Branscomb led E&H with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Junior forward Alic Wynn came off the bench to register 17 points and six boards, while Spencer notched 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.

The Generals shot 52.6 percent (30-of-57) from the floor and 9-of-24 (37.5 percent) from long range. The Wasps finished the game 32-of-70 (45.7 percent) from the field and 7-of-19 (36.8 percent) from three-point range. While the Blue and White shot 95.8 percent from the charity stripe, E&H made just 16-of-24 (66.7 percent) of its attempts from the foul line.

The W&L single-game record for free throw percentage is 100.0 percent, when the team made 19-of-19 from the charity stripe against Bridgewater on February 19, 2000. If the Generals had not missed their final free throw of the contest against E&H, they would have set a new record because their number of attempts would have been higher.

W&L has its final game of the regular season on Saturday, when it hosts Randolph-Macon at 2:00 pm. The Blue and White will honor its three seniors before the contest.

-- ww.generalssports.com --