Glenside, PA - The Messiah men's basketball team dropped a back-and-forth battle to Arcadia University Saturday 68-73.

The Falcons led by as many as seven points early in the first half, but the Knights (6-2, 1-1) battled their way back to claim a 34-26 advantage going into halftime.

In the second half, the Falcons (3-4, 0-2) made up their deficit quickly, outscoring Arcadia 20-11. With the score knotted at 46-46, Messiah's Luke Cable and Arcadia's John Landro duked it out from behind the arc. In a little over five minutes, Cable drained three triples while Landro responded with two threes and a baseline jumper to equalize things at 61-61.

With less that three minutes to play, the Falcons turned the ball over twice, which proved quite costly. On each turnover, the Falcons were forced to foul in order to regain possession. As a result, Arcadia, who shot 75% (15-20) from the charity stripe, went 8-8 in the final moments to claim the 68-73 win.

Luke Cable and Geoff Boyle led the Falcons with 15 points each, while Landro led all scorers with 22 points. Josh Clippinger contributed 10 points and three rebounds to Messiah's tally, while Micah Brown added nine points.

The Falcons return to action on Wednesday when the host Gettysburg College. The non-conference contest is slated to begin at 8:00 p.m.