GRANTHAM, Pa. - Messiah men's basketball could not overcome a great shooting performance put on by Albright College on Saturday afternoon in Grantham, as they fell 85-73 on Senior Day. The Lions went 28-of-51 (54.9%) from the field, 9-of-17 from deep (52.9%), and 20-of-22 (90.9%) from the free throw line to hold off the Falcons.
 
Messiah falls to 14-9 on the year and 8-6 in the MAC Commonwealth, while Albright improves to 18-5 on the year and 11-4 in the conference. With the win, the Lions have now taken over the top seed in the conference with Lycoming losing to Stevenson this afternoon. For the Falcons, they still need one win to clinch a postseason berth with two games left in the regular season, as both Alvernia and Widener were victorious today to climb to two games back of Messiah.
 
Colin Sareyka led the Falcons with 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, while seniors Neil Murren and Matt Hess dropped 18 and 10, respectively, on their last regular season games in Grantham.
 
Blow-for-Blow Early
Albright came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, as they scored the first eight points of the game and hit four of their first five three-point attempts to take a 16-6 lead just three and a half minutes into the game.
 
Messiah withstood the early onslaught by the Lions as they settled down defensively and put together an 11-4 run to cut the deficit to three, 20-17, with 9:14 remaining in the first-half. Sareyka had six of those 11 points, including a stop-and-pop jumper to finish the run.
 
Lions Finish First-Half Strong
Albright went on a 21-11 run to close out the first period to take a 41-28 lead, highlighted by 10 points from senior leader DeJuan Smith. In the opening 20 minutes, Smith was 5-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from deep to lead all scorers with 14 at the break.
 
Albright Does Not Let Up
Messiah showed glimpses of a comeback early in the second-half, outscoring the Lions 16-9 over the first eight minutes to cut the deficit to six, 52-46. The run was capped by back-to-back triples from Hess and Sareyka and a beautiful alley-oop slam from Sareyka to Josh Darville.
 
However, that was as close as the Falcons would come, as Albright would lead by as much as 20 down the stretch before a couple of late triples from Hess, Sareyka, and Sam Whittle brought the deficit back down to 12 before the final buzzer sounded. Albright's 85 points was the third-highest scoring output put up on the Falcons all season, with the triple overtime game on Jan. 13 being the highest.
 
Next Up
Messiah will look to bounce back on Tuesday when they travel to Hood College for an 8:00 p.m. start. Earlier this season, the Falcons defeated the Blazers on Jordan Court by a final score of 69-60.