Grantham, PA - The Messiah men's basketball team put up a good fight but fell to Ursinus College in the TownePlace Suites Tip-Off Championship by a score of 67-60. Nate Eberle led the Falcons with 12 points and Josh Clippinger finished with 11 points, shooting 5 for 11 from the field and collecting nine rebounds. Luke Cable also scored in double digits with 10 points and notched three steals.
 
Messiah had their poorest shooting effort on the young season, only making 32.3% of their field goals and shooting 46.7% (7 of 15) from the free throw line. On the flip side, Ursinus shot 84.2% (16 of 19) from the charity stripe. The Falcons were out-rebounded by a 39-34 margin, but managed to win the turnover battle, forcing 20 miscues by the Bears and only committing 14. Messiah's bench added solid contributions, scoring 16 points compared to just four from Ursinus' reserves.
 
With the defeat, Messiah falls for the first time this year, slipping to 1-2. This tournament opened the season for the Bears, who now improve to 2-0.
 
The Falcons started strong, getting a jumper from Luke Cable and a layup from Neil Murren to take a quick 4-0 lead two minutes in. Ursinus quickly recovered, going on a 15-7 run to take a 15-11 lead at the 10:18 mark. Messiah countered with a three from Colin Sareyka and a driving layup from Clippinger to retake the lead.
 
At the 2:29 mark, the Falcons equaled their biggest lead of the game thus far with a triple from Luke Cable that put Messiah ahead 24-20. However, the Bears closed out the opening period with six unanswered points to take a 26-20 lead into the break.
 
Ursinus built on the momentum they closed out the first-half with, scoring the first ten points of the second-half to increase their advantage to 12, 36-24. Messiah would not go away quietly, though, as Eberle poured in three triples to go along with a free throw from Murren and a jumper from Clippinger to tie the game at 36 with 14:22 remaining.
 
The Bears followed with another mini-run, outscoring Messiah 11-4 over the next four minutes. The Falcons clawed right back to within one at the 7:47 mark after a three-pointer by Logan Long and five points from Clippinger. The Bears and Falcons traded buckets for four more minutes, with a Clippinger layup cutting the Ursinus lead to 55-53 with 3:45 to play.
 
Ursinus began to pull away now, though, scoring eight unanswered on back-to-back triples from Eric Williams and a pair of free throws by Brian Rafferty to take a 63-53 lead with 42 seconds remaining in the contest. A three from Long and layups by Murren and Luke Cable weren't enough to mount a late comeback, and the Falcons fell by the final score of 67-60.
 
Matt Hess had a solid game, contributing five assists and two steals to go with four points. Eberle scored all 12 of his points from beyond the arc, going 4 of 5 from distance. The freshman also added three rebounds and a blocked shot in the effort.

Eric Williams shot a red-hot 6 of 7 from deep, scoring 20 points in the game for the Bears, who had four players score in double figures. Remi Janicot notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards, and Brian Rafferty dished out seven assists.
 
The Falcons return to action next Tuesday when they travel to local rival York College for a 7:00 p.m. start.