GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Albright Lions men's basketball team let a second half lead slip away as they lost a tough 80-78 game to Ithaca in the consolation game of the Gettysburg tip-off tournament on Saturday afternoon.
 
With the loss, the Lions fall to 1-3 on the season after their second game in two days. Meanwhile, the Bombers improve to 1-1 on the season as their season started yesterday.
 
Sophomore Samuel Majekodunmi led the Lions again as he scored a game-high 21 points and added five rebounds. It was his second-straight 20-point game as he was named to the Gettysburg Tip-Off All-Tournament team. Senior Jared Rappoport posted his second double-double of the week as he posted 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Sidney Brown finished with 12 points after hitting a trio of three-pointers, and junior DeLascio Dancy posted nine points and a team-high five assists.
 
Rappoport started the game off for the Lions with a bang as he dunked to give Albright a 2-0 lead, but the Lions went on a 5:25 field goal drought which allowed the Bombers to take an 11-4 lead at the 14:54-mark of the first half. Five-straight points from the Lions brought the deficit down to 11-9, but the Bombers struck back to score eight-straight points to go up 19-9 at the 10:54-mark of the first half. The Lions then went on a 10-1 run to make it a 20-19 game at the 7:11-mark that was capped by a three-pointer from freshman Mark Brinkley Jr. Ithaca used another extended Lions scoring drought to take a seven-point lead with 4:11 left in the first half, but the Lions used a 15-4 run to close out the half and take a 34-30 lead into halftime.
 
Just like the first half, Rappoport used a dunk to get the Lions their first two points of the second half in part of a 12-4 run to start the half for the Lions as they took a 46-34 lead at the 16:55-mark. Rappoport scored the first six points before a pair of three-pointers from Brown capped the run. The Lions were able to stretch out to their largest lead of the game at 52-38 with 15:11 left in the second half, and maintained a double-digit lead at 59-48 with 11:55 left. Ithaca then scored 11 unanswered points in a span of 1:47 to stun the Lions and tie the game at 59.  The Lions had four turnovers during the run while Ithaca went 4-of-5 from the field. A three-pointer from Dancy gave the Lions a 64-61 lead at the 7:59-mark which started a stretch of five lead changes and two ties. Ithaca took the lead for good at 72-70 with 4:32 left in the second half on a layup as they eventually went up 76-70. Albright got back-to-back baskets from Majekodunmi and Rappoport to make it 76-74 with 2:54 left. The Bombers went 4-of-5 from the free throw line to take an 80-75 lead with 11 seconds left before a three-pointer from Dancy kept Lions hopes alive. Unfortunately for the Lions, a turnover with three seconds left ended the hopes at a comeback.
 
The Lions finished the game shooting 44.1 percent (26-of-59) from the field and 43.8 percent (7-of-16) from beyond the arc. Albright posted a solid game from the free throw line as they went 19-of-25 (76%) and got 21 points from the bench. Meanwhile, the Bombers shot 40.0 percent from the field (30-of-75) and 9-of-32 (28.1%) from beyond the arc. Ithaca went 11-of-17 (64.7%) from the free throw line and held a slight 45-41 rebound advantage.
 
Riley Thompson led the Bombers with a game-high 26 points behind going 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, while Sebastian Alderete added 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds in the win.
 
Albright will return to action on just before Thanksgiving onTuesday, November 20^th when they will travel to face MAC Freedom foe Eastern at 5 p.m.