Chester, PA – After falling behind by as many as 20 points in the second-half, Messiah men's basketball tried to mount a late comeback but fell short, dropping the game to Widener University by a final score of 93-78 on Wednesday evening. The Falcons cut the Pride advantage down to 10 on a Rob McWilliams layup with 49 seconds left, but it would not be enough, as Messiah falls to 6-7 in the MAC Commonwealth and 11-10 overall.
 
With the win, Widener breaks the tie with Messiah to take hold of 5th place and the last playoff spot in the conference, improving to 7-6 in the MACC and 13-9 overall. 70 points continues to be the benchmark for Messiah in terms of scoring defense, as they fall to 1-9 when giving up more than 70 in a game, compared to 10-1 when opponents are held under that mark.
 
Josh Clippinger just missed notching his fourth double-double of the year, scoring 18 points and grabbing nine rebounds. McWilliams was the leading scorer for the Falcons, notching 19 points, and Colin Sareyka hit four threes in the second-half, finishing with 16 points. Messiah made just 27 of 75 attempted shots (36%) compared to 31-59 (52.5%) for Widener, and were outrebounded by the Pride by a margin of 46-39.
 
One minute into the game, Rob McWilliams got fouled on a three-point attempt and sank all three resulting free-throws, giving Messiah an early 3-2 lead. On the next Widener possession, Kendall Green gave the advantage back to the Pride with a layup, and they would not look back, leading throughout the rest of the game.
 
Clippinger scored the next 10 points for the Falcons, including a shot-clock-beating triple off a sweet behind-the-back feed from Luke Cable. However, Widener shot the ball well in the early going, taking a 13-point lead, 31-18, at the 9:40 mark off a spin move and two-handed slam from star player Sardayah Sambo and a deep triple from Sam Smith.
 
Messiah responded with eight unanswered points that included two threes from Neil Murren, cutting the Widener lead to five with 7:30 to play in the first-half. The Pride would storm right back, recording seven unanswered to build their lead back to 38-26 just two minutes later.
 
Sam Smith would hit a buzzer-beating three at the end of the half, giving Widener their biggest lead of the game at that point, 14, 46-32. Clippinger was the lone bright spot in the half for the Falcons, scoring 14 of his points in the early going. Sambo had a monster first 20 minutes for the Pride, recording nine points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, and three assists.
 
The game started to get away from Messiah early in the second-half, as Widener pushed their lead to 20 at the 14:35 mark on a triple from Smith that made it 61-41. Three minutes later, with the Pride ahead 67-48, Messiah went on an 8-0 run with threes by Sareyka and Murren and a layup from Clippinger to cut the lead to 11 with just over ten minutes remaining in the game.
 
Widener would maintain a lead between 11 and 16 points for the majority of the rest of the game, until a Sareyka three and McWilliams layup cut it to 10, 88-78, with just 49 seconds to play. The Falcons would not score the rest of the contest, and the Pride knocked down five more free throws to win by a final score of 93-78.
 
The win for Widener avenged a loss to Messiah in Grantham earlier this season, 72-65. Sardayah Sambo had a double-double in that game of 19 points and 11 rebounds, and he did it again tonight, recording 21 points and 13 rebounds to go along with five blocked shots. It was Sambo's 6th double-double of the year, and he also recorded his 1000th career point in the first-half, an impressive feat in just his junior season.
 
Of note for the Falcons, senior forward Josh Clippinger notched his 400th career rebound in the first-half.
 
Messiah will look to right the ship after two tough road losses when they return home this Saturday, Feb. 11 to face Lebanon Valley at 5:00 p.m.