WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – Senior Alysha Lofton fell just short of a triple-double as she helped lead the Albright Lions women's basketball team to a 65-58 non-conference road win over King's College on Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the Lions improve to 5-4 overall and snap a two-game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Lady Monarchs of the MAC Freedom Conference drop to 5-3 overall.
Lofton posted a line of a game-high 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field, while adding nine rebounds, a career-high eight assists, two steals, and two blocks in the win.

In addition to Lofton's performance, classmate Nina Mazzarelli put on a strong game as well with 19 points behind going 4-of-8 from three-point range and added three rebounds in the win. Albright also got near double-doubles from junior MiKayla Lea who posted eight points and nine rebounds, and senior Devan Horka after she posted nine points and seven rebounds.

Both teams started rather slowly offensively as the Lions worked their way out to a 7-5 lead at the 6:35-mark following a three-pointer from Lofton. Albright began to control play in the final minutes of the quarter after using an 11-4 run to close out the quarter after holding a 9-7 lead at the 5:23-mark. During that stretch, the Lions held the Lady Monarchs without a field goal for nearly four minutes of play. The Lofton then scored five points of a 7-2 Lions run to kick off the second quarter to take a 27-13 lead at the 8:11-mark in the second quarter which turned out to be the largest lead of the game. King's then would fight back with eight unanswered points on four straight made field goal attempts to pull within six at 27-21 with 6:30 left in the first half. Albright battled back with a 6-1 run to take a 33-22 lead with 1:55 left in the half as the held King's without a field goal for nearly five minutes of action. However, the Lions could not continue momentum to close out the half as the Lady Monarchs used a 6-1 run of their own to pull within 34-28 at halftime.

Albright's offense in the second half started off strong by hitting 4-of-7 shot attempts to take a 43-32 lead at the 7:25-mark of the third quarter. The Lady Monarchs then mounted a huge charge with nine unanswered points over two minutes to pull within two points at 43-41 with 5:25 left in the third quarter after hitting 4-of-5 shot attempts in that span. The Lions responded to take a 45-41 lead with a layup from Horka eight seconds later, but the Lady Monarchs responded with an 8-2 run to take their first lead since early in the first quarter at 49-47 with 2:49 left in the third quarter. The teams traded the lead three times in the final two minutes that left the Lions up 53-51 at the end of the third after they scored the final three points of the quarter. Both teams hit a field goal in the first minute of the final quarter, but then went scoreless for nearly the next four minutes before King's took a 56-55 lead on a layup with 5:17 left in the game. Mazzarelli then hit the shot of the game for the Lions with a three-pointer at the 3:31-mark to give the Lions the lead for good. Albright outscored the Lady Monarchs 10-2 in the final three and a half minutes of the game to pull out the road win.

The Lions shot 43.9 percent (25-of-57) from the field for the game and 37.5 percent from beyond the arc. Albright held a 47-34 rebounding advantage for the game and shot just 9-of-16 from the free throw stripe. Meanwhile, the Lady Monarchs shot 31.8 (21-of-66) percent for the game after shooting just 23.7 percent in the first half. King's shot 29.4 percent from beyond the arc and 64.7 percent (11-of-17) from the free throw line. The Lady Monarchs forced 25 Lion turnovers that led to 13 points, while Albright scored 12 fastbreak points.

Alexis Steeber led the Lady Monarchs with a team-high 16 points along with six rebounds and three assists. Rebecca Prociak tallied a double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds, while Mackenzie Yori added 14 points behind going 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Albright will return to action on Wednesday, December 20^th when they will host Stockton in non-conference play at 5 p.m.