CHESTER, Pa. – The Albright Lions women's basketball team was outscored 26-13 in the fourth quarter as they were upended by the Widener Pride on the road Wednesday night in MAC Commonwealth Play.

With the loss, the Lions saw their four-game winning streak snapped as they drop to 4-3 overall with a 2-1 record in MAC Commonwealth play. This is the Lions first loss in regular season MAC Commonwealth play since January 2016 snapping a 29 game regular season conference game winning streak. Meanwhile the Pride improve to 4-3 overall with a 1-2 record in conference play.

Four Lions finished in double digits for scoring led by senior Nina Mazzarelli, who scored a season-high 20 points behind going 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and played the entire 40 minutes. Classmate Devan Horka posted 17 points, eight rebounds, and three assists while Alysha Lofton registered 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Junior MiKayla Lea also tallied double digits in scoring with 11 points in addition to having seven rebounds and one block.
Both teams started slow offensively as the Lions jumped out to an early 6-2 advantage at the 5:39-mark with six straight points. Widener tied the game at six before Albright used seven unanswered points to take a 13-6 lead at the 2:38-mark capped by a fastbreak layup from Mazzarelli. The Pride hit two three-pointers in the final two minutes to cut the Lions lead down to 15-12 at the end of the first quarter. Albright started the quarter on a 5-1 run to take a 20-13 lead with 8:01 left in the half and would continue to hold a seven-point lead at the 6:01-mark at 25-18. The Lions built its lead to the largest of the half at 32-23 with 1:41 left in the half after a three-pointer from Mazzarelli and held it until the Pride hit a three-pointer with one second left to bring the score to 34-28 at the half.

The teams traded baskets to start the second half before the Lions scored five straight points to extend its lead back out to nine points at 41-32 at the 7:16-mark. Widener outscored Albright 9-5 over the span of two minutes to cut the lead down to five at 46-41 and eventually down to four at the 4:07-mark of the quarter. The Lions then used a 7-2 run to take a 55-46 lead at the 1:52-mark but was burned yet again in the final seconds of a quarter by a Pride three-pointer to bring the score to 57-51 heading into the fourth. Widener opened the fourth with seven unanswered points to take its first lead since being up 2-0 to start the game at 58-57 with 8:00 left in the game. The lead for each team never got above three points for the next six minutes before the Pride took a five-point lead with 2:26 left in the game following four straight points. A layup from Horka with 1:34 left cut the lead down to three, but that was as close as the Lions would get as the Pride scored the final four points to take the surprising win.

The Lions shot 37.9 percent (25-of-66) from the field and 35.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 15-of-19 (78.9%) from the charity stripe. Albright outrebounded the Pride 44-43 but Widener held a 12-9 advantage in second chance points. The Pride shot 38.5 percent (25-of-65) from the field after shooting at a 48.4 clip in the second half. Widener made nine three-pointers and went 18-of-26 from the free throw line. The Pride also outscored the Lions 16-2 on bench points.

Madison Ireland led the pride with a game-high 28 points and dished out six assists, while Allison Gallagher posted 14 points and eight rebounds. Devan Rimmer also scored in double-digits with 11 points.

Albright will take a break from MAC Commonwealth play for the next month and will head back to non-conference play on Saturday, December 9^th when they will face Moravian on the road for a 2 p.m. tip.