BALTIMORE, Md. – The Albright Lions women's basketball team once again found themselves on the wrong end of a tightly contested contest in the Mike Durgala Tournament hosted by Johns Hopkins as they fell 58-56 to Lynchburg in the consolation game on Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, the Lions drop to 0-2 to start the season as they will now have almost a full week off before playing their next game. Meanwhile, the Hornets of the ODAC improve to 2-1 and avenge their loss last season to Albright that was also played in a tip-off tournament.

Junior MiKayla Lea led the Lions by tying for a team-high 14 points, while pulling down a team-high 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. She also posted four blocks and three steals to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team. Senior Alysha Lofton matched Lea with 14 points, on going 7-of-14 from the field, and registered seven rebounds with three assists. Classmates Nina Mazzarelli posted 13 points and Jane Joyce scored six points with three assists and three steals.

Much like the day before, the Lions opened the game on a short run as they jumped out to a 6-2 lead at the 7:02-mark of the 1^st quarter. The game would then go back and forth in the 1^st quarter and Joyce gave the Lions their largest lead of the quarter at the 4:09-mark on a jumper to bring the score to 14-10. However, Albright went just over three minutes without a basket while the Hornets went on a 9-4 run to take a 19-18 lead into the second quarter. The teams went exactly two minutes into the second quarter without scoring a point before Lynchburg hit a layup to extend their lead to 21-18. Albright's defense then clamped down on the Hornets as they held them without a field goal for the next 7:04 minutes, while going on a 10-1 run of themselves to take a 28-22 lead with 1:07 left in the half. The Lions forced six turnovers during the run before the Hornets hit the final basket of the half with 56 seconds left in the first half to leave the score at 28-24 into halftime.

Lynchburg opened the second half on a quick 6-2 run to tie the game at 30 with 7:08 left in the third quarter before the teams traded baskets over the next two and a half minutes to bring the score to 34-34 at the 4:28-mark. For the final four minutes of the game, each team was unable to have a lead over one point with the Hornets taking a 39-38 lead into the final quarter after a jumper with 17 seconds left in the third. Lynchburg then built its largest lead of the game at 42-38 with 9:19 left in the game after scoring the first three points of the fourth quarter. Then three consecutive baskets from the Lions gave Albright the lead back at 44-42 at the 7:01-mark. After a three-pointer from the Hornets to take the lead back, Lea answered with a three-pointer of her own to give Albright a 47-45 lead at the 6:20-mark. Another three-pointer from Lea gave the Lions a 52-48 lead with 4:54 left, but six unanswered points from the Hornets gave them the lead back at 54-52 with 3:02 left in the game. Lea tied the game again on a layup with 2:03 left before a three-pointer from the Hornets just 15 seconds later would give them the lead for good.

The Lions shot 48.1 percent (25-of-52) from the field but went just 2-of-10 from beyond the arc, and 4-of-9 from the free throw line. Meanwhile, the Hornets went 36.5 percent (23-of-63) from the field and just 25 percent (2-of-8) from beyond the arc. The Hornets held a 41-33 rebound advantage, and had 15 second chance points. Albright also scored 34 points in the paint for the contest.

Brittany Afolabi-Brown led all scorers with a game-high 19 points on 8-of-17 from the field, while Caroline Naumann recorded a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Olivia DeFrancesco added 10 points which included the go-ahead three-pointer in the final two minutes.

Albright will return to the court on Saturday, November 25^th when it will travel to face Ursinus in non-conference action at 1 p.m.