ST. DAVID'S, Pa. – The Albright Lions men's basketball team was unable to overcome a strong second from from Eastern as they fell to the Eagles by a score of 71-59 in non-conference action on Tuesday evening.
 
With the loss, the Lions fall to 1-4 overall as they have dropped three-straight games. Meanwhile, the Eagles of the MAC Freedom improve to 3-1 on the season.
 
Sophomore Samuel Majekodunmi registered his third-straight 20-point game as he posted a career-high 26 points, while adding four rebounds and three steals in the contest. Classmate Isaiah Harris recorded a career-high 13 rebounds and posted six points, while Sidney Brown added seven points plus a team-high four steals. Sophomore Deion Booker tallied eight rebounds and four points, while DeLascio Dancy posted six rebounds, two points, and a team-high three assists.
 
The Lions offense started slow as they did not register a field goal until Harris got them on the board with a lay-up to tie the game at two with 16:57 left in the first half. Eastern then went on an 8-2 run to take a 10-4 lead at the 14:55-mark. The Eagles extended the run to 15-5 to take a 17-7 lead at the 12:45-mark before the Lions used a 10-2 run over a span of 3:52 to cut the lead down to 19-17. Eastern snapped a 4:38 field goal drought with a three-pointer at the 8:07-mark, and would re-extend the lead out to 27-19 with 5:31 left in the first half. Albright made a late 9-2 first half run to cut the Eagle lead down to one point at 29-28, and would tie the game at 32 with 47 seconds left after a lay-up from freshman Blake Thomson. Eastern then grabbed a bucket with 29 seconds left to take a 34-32 lead into halftime.
 
Albright knotted the score at 36 early in the second half as they did not allow the Eagles to make a field goal until the 15:54-mark. Unfortunately for the Lions, that first basket started a run of seven-straight points for the Eagles that helped Eastern take a 43-36 lead at the 13:48-mark. Five-straight points from the Lions brought the deficit down to 43-41 at the 12:53-mark, but Eastern responded with a 12-5 run to take a 55-46 lead with 8:26 left in the second half. The Lions nearly went four full minutes without a field goal until Majekodunmi hit a jumper at the 6:12-mark to make it a 57-50 deficit. Eastern then went on a 9-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 66-52 with 3:25 left in the second half. Five more points from Majekodunmi made it a nine-point game at 66-57, but that would be as close as the Lions would get as the Eagles pulled away to seal the win.
 
The Lions shot 37.7 percent (23-of-61) from the field and just 3-of-18 (16.7%) from beyond the arc. Albright went 10-of-16 (62.5%) from the free throw line and scored 15 points off 16 Eagle turnovers. Meanwhile, the Eagles went 40 percent (26-of-65) from the field after shooting 44.8 in the second half. Eastern went 40 percent (8-of-20) from three-point range and 11-of-16 (68.8%) from the free throw line. The Eagles held a sizable 49-34 rebound advantage which led to 15 second chance points.
Darius Washington led the Eagles with 18 points after going 5-of-9 from beyond the arc, while Victor Pena recorded a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Michael Bowlers also tallied a double-double with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 14 rebounds.
 
The Lions will return to action in a week on Wednesday, November 28^th when they will open MAC Commonwealth play at Lycoming for a 6 p.m. tip.