READING, Pa. – The Albright Lions men's basketball team used a balanced scoring attack to pick up a 74-60 win over Eastern on Tuesday night in non-conference action at the Bollman Center.
 
With the win, the Lions improve to 3-2 overall and snap a three-game overall losing streak to the Eagles. Meanwhile, the Eagles fall to 3-4 overall on the season. This was the final non-conference meeting between the schools as Eastern will shift from the MAC Freedom to the MAC Commonwealth next season in part of conference realignment.
 
Juniors Troy Smoot and Samuel Majekodunmi each led all scorers with 17 points apiece. Smoot went 5-of-8 from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, while Majekodunmi went 6-of-9 from the field and tallied three assists. Classmate Isaiah Harris added 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, while grabbing four rebounds and two steals. Junior Sidney Brown posted 11 points behind going 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Sophomore Corey Simmons added six points and five rebounds off the bench in the win.
 
Following multiple turnovers from both teams to start the game, the Eagles notched the first two baskets of the game to go up 4-0 at the 17:26-mark of the first half. Eastern extended its lead to 7-3 at the 16:10-mark before the Lions used a 15-2 run to go up 18-9 at the 10:21-mark of the first half. The Eagles went scoreless for 6:22 and had seven turnovers during that stretch. The Eagles battled to get within five points at 19-14 with 7:59 left in the first half, but the Lions continued to have answer for Eastern baskets as they maintained no less than a five-point advantage the rest of the first half. A layup from junior Deion Booker put the Lions up 12 at 32-20 with 1:09 left in the first half, and took a 32-21 lead into the locker rooms following an Eagle free throw in the final minute. Albright used a 9-4 run to take their largest lead with five of the points coming from Harris.
 
After going just 2-of-9 from three-point range in the first half, the Lions came out firing with back-to-back three-pointers from Smoot and Brown to go up 38-21 at the 18:35-mark of the second half. Smoot hit another three-pointer at the 15:54-mark to make it a 46-23 game as the Lions continued to maintain a double-digit lead in the early portions of the first half. Eastern began to start chip away around the midway through the second half as they made it a nine-point game at 48-39 with 11:36 remaining in the second half. Up 53-43 at the 8:54-mark, the Lions hit three-straight three-pointers to take a commanding 62-43 lead at the 7:00-minute mark. After a free throw from Smoot made it 63-43, the Eagles made one last charge with a 14-2 run to cut the lead down to 65-57 with 2:39 left in the second half. However, the Lions put the game away with five-straight points off a jumper from Majekodunmi and a three-pointer from Brown.
 
The Lions shot 48.1 percent (26-of-54) from the field and went 10-of-20 from beyond the arc after going 8-of-11 (72.7%) in the second half. Albright shot a solid 12-of-16 (75%) from the charity stripe and scored 17 points off 23 Eagle turnovers. The Lions also outscored the Eagles 15-8 in second chance points. Meanwhile, the Eagles shot 44.9 percent (22-of-49) from the field and just 3-of-11 (27.3%) from three-point range. Eastern went 13-of-26 (50%) from the free throw line and held a slight 32-30 rebound advantage. The Eagles scored 17 points off 19 Lion turnovers.
 
Draig Ruff led the Eagles with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, and tallied four rebounds and three steals. Clifton Adams added 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting, and William Blet also posted 11 points. In his first game back from a knee injury, the Lions limited Victor Pena to nine points on 2-of-11 shooting.
 
The Lions will return to action on Wednesday, December 4^th as they will open MAC Commonwealth play against defending conference champion Arcadia at 6 p.m.