Grantham, PA - The Messiah College Falcons had no answer for Alvernia on Saturday as they lost 78-64 and dropped to 0-4 in the Commonwealth Conference. Just six players collected minutes for the Crusaders, who were led by Lamont Clark's 21 points. Mike Miller added a career-high 20 points for Alvernia, who as a team shot 58% from the field.

Messiah led for much of the first-half, even taking a 17-8 lead with 10:56 to play. But their early hot shooting soon cooled off and the Crusaders took their first lead (26-25) with under five minutes left in the first-half. At one point in those final minutes the Crusaders completed a 13-0 run that had them up 32-25. A three-pointer by Zac Hoy finally ended that streak with 1:56 on the clock, but Messiah still trailed 36-32 at halftime.

The Crusaders' strong finish to the first-half was led by the duo of Miller (12 points) and Clark (10 points). Alvernia was also 10-16 from the free-throw line at the break, with Messiah just 1-1-- a stat aided by the Crusaders being called for just four fouls in the first 20 minutes. That probably had as much to do with the Falcons' setting for perimeter shots as anything else, as they went 5-15 from three-point range before halftime.

In the second-half Alvernia quickly pulled ahead by both attacking the basket and hitting shots from deep. Back-to-back layups by Harrison Deyo and Miler put Alvernia up 45-34 with 17:26 on the clock, and soon after a three-pointer by Charles Cooper kept them ahead by 10 points (48-38).

Another three from Cooper with 11:51 left put Alvernia up 55-42, and still another shot by Cooper from beyond the arc had the Crusaders up 62-45 with 9:08 to play.

As the game wore on Messiah did little to catch up, and the closest they got was the final score of 78-64. Alvernia's largest lead came at the 1:52 mark, 76-55.

All 78 of Alvernia's points were scored by their starters, and they shot 57.8% for the game. Clark and Miller combined for their 41 points on 15-21 shooting.

Messiah was led by the 14 points of Zac Hoy, with both Luke Cable and Geoff Boyle adding 11 points each. But those two combined for 8-25 shooting from the field, with Cable's 3-10 shooting from deep playing a part in Messiah's frustrating 5-21 (23.8%) performance from three-point range.

Boyle did collect a season-high 14 rebounds for his fourth double-double, and Josh Clippinger added eight points and two rebounds. Leading scorer David Fernandez-Bravo was held to seven points, just third time all season he failed to reach double-figures.

Messiah fell to 7-5 overall, and is now 0-4 in the Commonwealth. They will look to get in the win column again when they travel to Stevenson University on Wednesday, Jan. 7 for a 8:00 p.m. tip.