READING, Pa. – The Albright Lions men's basketball team was unable to overcome 26 turnovers as they dropped a 63-55 contest to Franklin & Marshall on Friday night at the Bollman Center in non-conference action.
 
With the loss, the Lions drop to 2-2 on the season overall. Meanwhile, the Diplomats improve to 2-1 on the season.
 
Junior Sidney Brown led the Lions with a team-high 10 points behind 4-of-8 shooting from the field, and added three steals. Classmate Isaiah Harris posted eight points and one rebound, while Samuel Majekodunmi posted seven points along with four rebounds. Sophomore Corey Simmons provided solid numbers off the bench with seven points on 3-of-3 shooting, and five rebounds in 15 minutes of action.
 
The Lions started slow from the field as they missed their first four field goal attempts and turned the ball over three times in the first three minutes of action. Meanwhile, the Diplomats took advantage as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead at the 17:16-mark. The Lions began to claw back with a short 6-2 burst to cut the Diplomat lead down to 8-6 at the 16:21-mark. However, a 4:24 scoring drought ended momentum as Franklin & Marshall built a 20-6 lead with 12:06 left in the first half. The Diplomats continued the run as they took their largest lead of the game at 24-8 with 9:22 left in the first half before six-straight Lions points made it a 24-14 game at the 7:05-mark. The Diplomats were able to maintain a double-digit lead for the rest of the half as the Lions went the final 8:32 of the first half without a field goal. Albright scored two points off free throws in the final in the final seven minutes of the first half, while the Diplomats extended the lead back out to 15 points at the half, 31-16.
 
Albright went on a 12-2 run to open the second half to cut the Diplomat lead down to 33-28 at the 16:25-mark following a dunk from Harris. A layup from Majekodunmi at the 15:19-mark made it a five-point game again at 35-30, but the Lions would get no closer than that for the rest of the game. A 10-2 run put the Diplomats up 45-32 at the 12:51-mark to end any early half momentum that the Lions built. Albright went on a 9-4 run to cut the Diplomat lead down to eight points at 49-41 with 9:49 left in the second half, but Franklin & Marshall went back up double-digits again at 54-43. The Diplomats held a 61-49 lead at the 2:14-mark of the second half before the Lions began making one last run. Albright scored six-straight points to make it a 61-55 game with 54 seconds left in regulation. However, two last Diplomat free throws and a turnover sealed the win for Franklin & Marshall.
 
The Lions shot 40.0% (22-of-55) from the field after going just 26.3% in the first half. Albright went 1-of-10 from beyond the arc, and 10-of-15 (66.7%) from the free throw line. Albright held a slight 38-32 rebounding advantage which led to 17 second chance points, but had 26 turnovers that led to 23 Diplomat points. Meanwhile, the Diplomats shot 44.2% (23-of-52) from the field and 4-of-17 (23.5%) from three-point range. Franklin & Marshall shot 68.4% (13-of-19) from the free throw line as well.

Justin Kupa led the Diplomats with a game-high 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting, while adding four steals. Ignas Slyka added 13 points and five rebounds in the win.
 
Albright will return to action on Tuesday, November 26^th as they will host Eastern at 5 p.m. in non-conference play.