READING, Pa. – In a rematch of last season's MAC Commonwealth Championship Game, the Albright Lions men's basketball team used a big second half to defeat Lebanon Valley 86-56 in conference play on Saturday afternoon at the Bollman Center.
 
With the win, the Lions improve to 3-4 overall and 2-0 in MAC Commonwealth play. Meanwhile, the Dutchmen fall to 2-5 and 0-2 in conference play. This was the first win against the Dutchmen at the Bollman Center since December 2014 for the Lions.
 
Senior Jared Rappoport led the Lions with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, while adding seven rebounds and four blocks. Rappoport averaged 17 points in the Lions two games this week which included his game-winning basket as time expired in overtime against Lycoming on Wednesday. Freshman Mark Brinkley Jr., followed with a season-high 15 points off the bench, behind going 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, in addition to having three rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Samuel Majekodunmi added with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting with 10 of the points coming in the second half, while junior DeLascio Dancy posted eight points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Freshman Blake Thomson also provided a big spark off the bench for the Lions in the first half when some key players got in early foul trouble by finishing with seven points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
 
Both offenses got off to a slow start in the first half as the Lions took an early 4-0 lead at the 16:53-mark as the teams combined to go 3-of-11 from the field in the opening four minutes. The Dutchmen then used a 9-3 run to take a 9-7 lead at the 12:52-mark of the first half and forced the Lions to take a timeout. Albright countered after the stoppage to go on a 13-5 run over a span of 5:05 to take a 20-14 lead at the 7:47-mark of the first half. Lebanon Valley worked its way back down two points at 22-20 with 6:44 left in the first half before the Lions ran off eight-straight points to take a 30-20 lead at the 4:47-mark of the first half. Up 32-22 with 3:18 left in the first half, the Lions closed out the half on a 7-2 run to take a 39-24 lead into halftime.
 
A trio of three-pointers were made to start the second half after the teams combined to go 2-of-24 from beyond the arc in the first half. With the score at 42-30 in favor of the Lions, Albright used a 9-3 run to take a 51-33 lead at the 15:53-mark of the second half which became a part of an 18-6 burst to extend their lead out to 21 points at 62-41. The Lions continued to dominate in the second half as they used a 14-6 run to take a 76-47 lead at the 5:23-mark. A 10-5 run with all the starters out of the game put the Lions up 34, the largest lead of the game, at 86-52 before tallying the win with a final score of 86-56.
 
The Lions finished the game by shooting 45.9 percent from the field (28-of-61) after going 50% from the field in the second half. Albright went 8-of-24 (33.3%) from beyond the arc and 22-of-33 (66.7%0 from the free throw line. The Lions out-rebounded the Dutchmen 47-37 which led to 13 second-chance points, and got 40 points off the bench. Meanwhile, the Dutchmen shot just 29.2 percent (19-of-65) from the field and just 5-of-27 (18.5%) from three-point range. Lebanon Valley was solid from the free throw line at 86.7 percent (13-of-15).
 
Justin Baker and Jordan Abdo led the Dutchmen with 15 points apiece, while Zach Tucker added 11 points and a game-high five assists in the loss.
 
The Lions will return to action on Wednesday, December 5^th, when they will continue conference play against Widener at 6 p.m.