Grantham, PA – The Messiah men's basketball team lost a double overtime thriller in Brubaker Auditorium on Saturday afternoon to the Widener Pride 78-74.
 
In a 55-55 game, with 22 seconds on the clock, the Falcons forced the Widener Pride to travel underneath their own basket. The turnover gave the Falcons the ball with the shot clock turned off and a chance to win the game. On the ensuing possession, Luke Cable hit a three in front of the Falcons' bench to give Messiah a three-point lead with five seconds left.
 
Cable's three looked to have given the Falcons a much needed victory. However the Falcons' lead was short lived. Widener quickly moved the ball down the court and got David Nicholson open for a three-point attempt. Nicholson missed his three, but was fouled in the process and connected on all three attempts from the charity stripe to force overtime.
 
The first few minutes of overtime was the Luke Cable show for Messiah. Cable opened the overtime period with a three pointer from virtually the same spot he hit from at the end of regulation. Cable then made a free throw and a floater in the lane to score the Falcons first six points of overtime.
 
Unfortunately for the Falcons, for every bucket that Cable had in him the Pride countered with one of their own.  After every Pride bucket, Widener would come with full-court pressure that the Falcons struggled to break.
 
In the final minute of overtime, and with the Falcons trailing by four, Geoff Boyle collected his own rebound and finished the put back while being fouled in the process. He completed the three-point play to bring the Falcons within one at 67-68.
 
A bucket at the other end for Widener pushed the Pride lead to three. With 20 seconds left on the clock, Messiah called a timeout to regroup. Coming out the timeout the Falcons drew up a play from Cable to be open in front of the Falcons' bench. Cable got the ball but could not get a shot off, he instead drove from the left side and kicked out to BJ McHenry who buried a three to tie the game at 70-70 with just seconds on the clock. When Widener's final attempt in the first overtime didn't fall, the game went to double overtime.
 
The second-overtime opened slowly, Widener made a jumper in the opening minute before Josh Clippinger made a pair of free throws to counter. The teams were then scoreless until Matt Hess hit a pair of free throws with 1:22 remaining. Sardayah Sambo made a layup for Widener to tie the game again.
 
In the final minute the Pride made a layup to go up by two. The Falcons then missed two three-point attempts in the final 15 seconds. Widener grabbed the second rebound and Messiah was forced to foul. Sambo made both of his free throws to give the Pride a 78-74 victory.

Sambo lead all scorers with 26 points to pace the Pride. Luke Cable led the Falcons with 19 points while Geoff Boyle and Josh Clippinger each added 13 points in the double overtime loss.

The loss drops the Falcons to 1-6 in the MAC Commonwealth and 5-12 overall. Messiah will next take the court on Wednesday when they travel to Annville to take on Lebanon Valley at 8:00 p.m.