Grantham, PA – The Messiah men's basketball team dug themselves a deep hole in the first-half against the visiting Lycoming Warriors on Wednesday night, before a late second-half comeback closed the gap to seven. Unfortunately for the Falcons the late run did not have enough steam and Messiah fell to the Warriors 74-62.
 
Luke Cable led the Falcons with 20 points in the loss. While Neil Murren and Micah Brown pitched in with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
 
The Warriors opened the game by winning the tip and immediately scoring a layup on a fast break. After a missed three for the Falcons the Warriors responded with a three of their own just seconds into the shot clock. Lycoming's three found the bottom of the basket and it looked as if the Warriors were off to the races.
 
Lycoming made five of their first six shots to jump out to a 15-2 lead less than four minutes into the contest. However the score would remain at 15-2 for the next five minutes as Messiah and Lycoming combined to go 0-14 from the field in the stretch. Geoff Boyle finally ended the run with a 15-foot jumper to cut the deficit to 11 points.
 
After Boyle's jumper and a layup by Jimmy Brackett, the Warriors began a 15-2 run over the next 4:40 to open up a 22-point lead at 30-8. The lead ballooned to as many as 23 in favor of the Warriors after Chris Wallace made a layup with 1:53 remaining in the half. A three-point play by Luke Cable cut the Lycoming lead to 20-points at the break at 36-16.
 
The large deficit for the Falcons was due in large part to a poor shooting effort. As a team, Messiah shot just 25.0% (7-28) in the half and 9.1% (1-11) from beyond the three-point arc.
 
The first 13 minutes of the second-half, felt much like the first-half. While it was much more even, the large Warrior lead at the half gave Lycoming a sizable cushion to work with. Every time the Falcons would cut into the Lycoming lead, the Warriors would respond.
 
With 7:14 remaining in regulation and with the Falcons trailing 52-34, five foot-four inch Willie Hope blocked a layup attempt by Lycoming's David Johnson to spark a Falcon rally. Micah Brown grabbed the rebound and was immediately fouled. Brown made his free throws to cut the lead to 16.
 
Messiah then went on a 26-15 run over the next 5:52. Cable (9 points), Brown (8), and Murren (7) fueled the rally, scoring 24 of the run's 26 points. Hope tallied the final two with an acrobatic layup on the right side as he was falling to the ground to cut the lead to seven at 67-60 with 1:22 remaining.
 
As Lycoming was inbounding the ball after Hope's layup, Jonah Meredith put his hand on the Lycoming inbounder. Meredith was given a technical on the play and Lycoming was awarded two free throws and the ball back. The Warriors made both free throws following the technical and then made two more after a Logan Long foul to push the lead back to 11 at 71-60.
 
A Neil Murren jumper and three made free throws for the Warriors over the final minute closed out the game and gave Lycoming a 74-62 victory.
 
The loss is the Falcons' eighth in a row and they move to 3-10 on the season with a 0-4 mark in MAC Commonwealth play.
 
Messiah will next take the court on Saturday when they hose the Albright Lions at 5:00 p.m. in Brubaker Auditorium.