DANVILLE, Va. ­— The Averett University men's basketball team lost a tough, non-conference matchup against Eastern Mennonite University 88-79 on Saturday afternoon at the Grant Center.

Averett (1-4) had four players finish in double-digit scoring. Senior Charles Bryant led the way with 16 points, while junior James Contreras Jr. finished with 15 and sophomore Jalen Burnett posted a career-high 15 points. Junior Darin Ketner recorded a career-high 13 points on 50 percent shooting from the field.

Eastern Mennonite (3-2) took a nine-point lead when Jerome Jones nailed a 3-pointer at the 17:08 mark. The Cougars fought back and used a 16-5 run over a span of five minutes to take their first lead (52-50) off sophomore T.J. McAllister's layup in the paint with 12:46 left in regulation.

The Royals retook the lead a minute later when Maleke Jones hit his 3 to make the score 55-54 with 11:32 on the clock. Eastern Mennonite hung on from there, building their lead to as many as 13 when Jones drained another 3-pointer to make it a 79-66 contest with just over three minutes remaining.

Eastern Mennonite's defense swarmed Averett to open the game and prevented Averett from getting good looks on the basket. Meanwhile, the Royals caught fire from beyond the arc, nailing 14 of 27 attempts from long range to take their biggest lead of the game at when Jones drained a long 3-pointer with just less than six minutes left in the first half.

Averett found some offensive momentum right before the break and cut its deficit down to eight when Ketner made good on his layup in the paint to make it 38-30 heading into the break.

The Cougars performed well under the boards, outrebounding the Royals 37-35. Bryant paced Averett with nine rebounds, giving him 654 on his career and putting him in fourth on Averett's all-time rebounding list past David Apple. Sophomore Austin DeLucia picked up five defensive boards for Averett.

Averett returns to action on Dec. 7 when it hosts Virginia Wesleyan College at 7 p.m. at the Grant Center.