CHESTER, Pa. – An 18-point first half deficit proved to be too much to overcome for the Albright Lions men's basketball team as they dropped an 84-75 contest to Widener on Wednesday night in MAC Commonwealth play.
 
With the loss, the Lions see their two-game winning streak to open conference play as they fall to 3-5 overall and 2-1 in the MAC Commonwealth. Meanwhile, the Pride improve to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
 
Junior DeLascio Dancy led the Lions with a team-high 12 points behind going 3-of-4 from three-point range, while posting a team-high seven rebounds, and added three steals. Sophomore Sidney Brown added 11 points behind a trio of three-pointers, and classmate Troy Smoot tallied 10 points off the bench after going 4-of-8 from the field. Sophomore Samuel Majekodunmi recorded 10 points and five rebounds, and senior Jared Rappoport posted six points, six rebounds, and a game-high five blocks. Rappoport moved into sixth all-time in Lions program history with 85 career blocks.
 
The Lions got off to a hot start as they took a quick 5-0 lead at the 19:09-mark of the first half after Brown hit a three-pointer. Widener responded with eight-straight points to take an 8-5 lead at the 15:50-mark as the Lions went on a scoring drought of 4:15. The Pride continued to dominate in the paint as they extended their run to 16-2 to take a 16-7 advantage at the 12:23-mark of the first half. Five-straight points from Smoot brought the Lions within four at 16-12, but the ride responded with a 12-3 run over a span of 4:13 to take a 25-14 lead with 7:55 left in the first half. Widener then extended its lead to 17 points as they put together a 13-4 run to take a 41-24 lead with 3:27 left in the first half. During the run, the Pride went 5-of-6 from the field over a span of 2:36. The Pride would then take a 47-29 lead into halftime after going 3-of-4 from the field down the stretch.
 
The teams traded baskets to open the second half as the Pride was able to extend its advantage out to 21 points at 56-35 with 16:48 left in the second half. Widener continued to be lights out from the field as they went up 61-38 at the 14:22-mark behind going 6-of-9 from the field to start the second half. Albright began to work the deficit down as they used a 9-2 run to make it a 14-point game at 69-55 with 9:19 left in the second half, but a three-pointer from the Pride on their following possession ended any gathering momentum. Widener held the Lions at bay by at least 15 points for the next seven and a half minutes before the Lions used a 10-2 run to close out the game to get the final deficit down to nine points.
 
Albright shot 39.7 percent from the field (27-of-68) from the field and went 11-of-28 (39.3%) from beyond the arc. The Lions went 10-of-17 (58.8%) from the charity stripe and scored 20 points off 16 Pride turnovers. Albright received 30 points from the bench and had 23 fast break points. Meanwhile, the Pride shot a sizzling 57.6 percent (34-of-59) from the field and went 38.5 percent (5-of-13) from three-point range. Widener went 11-of-15 (73.3%) from the free throw line and held a slight 39-34 rebounding advantage. The Pride scored a staggering 52 points in the paint.
 
Ryan McMahon led the Pride by falling just short of a triple-double with 20 points on (8-of-10) shooting, eight rebounds, and eight assists. Jalen Howard tallied 11 points and seven rebounds, while Jared Peters added 11 points off the bench.
 
The Lions will return to action on Saturday, December 8^th when they will continue their conference road trip at Stevenson for a 3 p.m. tip.