READING, Pa. – The Albright Lions basketball team suffered a tough 70-62 loss at the hands of Widener on Wednesday night at the Bollman Center in MAC Commonwealth play.
 
With the loss, the Lions drop to 5-13 overall and 4-6 in MAC Commonwealth play. Meanwhile, the Pride improves to 9-9 overall and 6-4 in conference play.
 
Sophomore Sam Majekodunmi led the Lions with 17 points in addition to having three rebounds. Classmate Troy Smoot added 12 points off the bench, while matching a team-high seven rebounds. Freshman Mark Brinkley Jr. tallied 10 points off the bench on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, and senior Jared Rappoport posted nine points and seven rebounds with one block.
 
Both offenses started slowly as the Lions held just a 4-2 lead at the 17:31-mark.  Albright then was held scoreless for a 7:20-span which allowed Widener score 10-straight points to take a 12-4 lead at the 10:12-mark. The Lions then quickly answered with eight-straight points in just 40 seconds to lock the game at 12 at the 9:31-mark. The Pride scored six-straight points to go back up 18-12 as the Lions were held scoreless for a stretch of 4:31. Albright countered with a 13-2 run, with seven points coming from Smoot, and took a 25-20 lead at the 1:05-mark. The teams then traded baskets in the final minute to leave the score with Albright up 27-24 at halftime.
 
Albright came out of the break with a 9-3 run to take their largest lead of the game at 36-27 at the 16:33-mark. Widener then used a huge 17-2 run to take a 47-41 lead at the 10:15-mark. After the run, the Pride would not trail for the rest of the game despite the Lions tying the game three times in the final 10-plus minutes. The Lions tied the contest at 56 following a layup from Majekodunmi at the 3:29-mark before the Pride closed the game out with a 14-6 run in the final minutes. Widener went 8-of-10 from the free throw line in the final 1:56 to close the game out.
 
The Lions shot 37.7 percent (23-of-61) from the field, but just went 8-of-27 (29.6%) from beyond the arc. Albright went 8-of-10 (80%) from the free throw line and got 26 points from the bench. Meanwhile, the Pride shot 46.4 percent (26-of-56) from the field overall after going 53.7 percent in the second half from the field. Widener, who held the highest three-point field goal percentage in the conference, went 0-of-8 from three-point range in the first half before going 6-of-11 in the second half to finish at 6-of-19 (31.6%).
 
Governor Mifflin graduate Jared Peters led the Pride with 24 points off the bench, with 18 coming in the second half. Peters went 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and added four rebounds with two assists. Ryan McMahon added 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in the win as well.
 
Albright will return to action on Saturday, January 26^th when they will host Lycoming in MAC Commonwealth play at 1 p.m.