Box Score

Giveaways hurt the Albright College women's basketball team on Wednesday as the Lions made 30 turnovers in an 80-36 loss at host Messiah.

Senior Jenny Knoebel led Albright with 12 points and a pair of assists, while sophomore Meghan Boyle added 10 points (on 4-of-6 shooting) and seven rebounds.

Turnovers were especially costly early as Messiah came out pressing and jumped out to a quick lead. The Lions would give the ball away seven times in the opening three minutes and 11 times in the first seven.

Freshman Amanda Tiritilli got down the court quick off a Messiah make for a transition bucket that represented Albright's first points of the game and made it 4-2 Falcons.

The hosts' overwhelming press quickly took its toll as Kira Maier turned an acrobatic steal into points, and then another turnover led to Dori Gyori's basket. Again the Lions failed to get out of their own end, and Maier sunk a short jumper to make it 12-2.

After Messiah stretched its lead to 15-2, Knoebel answered with a big three-pointer to keep the deficit at 10. Jordan Seiz stole a pass and completed a give-and-go with Gyori, and then Gyori scored herself to make it 21-5 Falcons. Boyle answered with a nice spin move in the lane.

Knoebel kept trying to make things happen, grabbing an errant pass and taking it to the basket for two points and  23-9 scoreline. Kari Ludy then put-back her own miss to make it 25-11. A three-point play from Gyori with six-and-half minutes left in the opening period pushed the gap to 36-15.

In the second half, Tiritilli again opened Albright's account with two free throws, 3:30 into the period. Taylor Miller had previously stretched the lead to 30 points with a three-pointer.

With 14 minutes to play, Knoebel stole an inbounds and took it the other way, finished off the and-one after being fouled. On the Lions' next possession, Knoebel nailed a tough off-balance 20-footer with a hand in her face.

It was 67-30 after Ludy followed up a blocked Albright shot on the fast break for two points. Knoebel followed that with another transition bucket that forced Messiah to call timeout.

Gyori had a game-high 20 points for the Falcons on 9-of-14 shooting. Maier had 14 points and three steals.

Albright falls to 4-10 and 0-3 in Commonwealth Conference play. The Lions will look to get back on track Saturday when they host Elizabethtown; tip-off is at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 2 p.m.