OWINGS MILLS, Md. – The Albright Lions basketball team valiantly pulled off a 21-point second half comeback to stun Stevenson by a score of 78-77 in the opening round of the MAC Commonwealth Tournament on Monday night.
 
With the win, the Lions improved to 9-16 overall will advance to face top-seeded Arcadia on Wednesday night in the semifinal round of the conference tournament. Meanwhile, the Mustangs will conclude the season at 14-12 after losing eight of its last 10 games.
 
Sophomore Samuel Majekodunmi registered a career-high 32 points with 28 of them coming in the second half, and 24 of them in the last 10:53 of the game. Majekodunmi finished just shy of a double-double with nine rebounds in addition to adding three assists and one steal. Senior Jared Rappoport posted 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, and set the single-season record for blocks in a season after tallying three blocks. Sophomore Sidney Brown posted 10 points, while classmates Christian Lane led the team with four assists, and Deion Booker tallied seven rebounds off the bench.
 
Each team started hot from the field as they traded points in the first two minutes of the game to leave the Mustangs up 5-4 at the 18:13-mark. The Lions rallied to tie the game at 8 at the 14:41-mark of the first half following a lay-up from Brown, but the Mustangs stormed back with a 12-3 run to go up 20-11 at the 11:51-mark of the first half. Albright then countered with 12-unaswerd points in a span of 4:47 to take a 23-20 lead that was capped by a three-pointer by Lane. Stevenson hit back-to-back three-pointers out of a timeout to go back up 26-23 before turnovers began to mount for Albright. That allowed the Mustangs to end the first half on a 14-2 run and take a 34-25 lead into halftime. The Lions ended up having 14 turnovers in the first half that led to 12 Stevenson points.
 
Stevenson continued to dominate at the start of the second half as they began the final 20 minutes on a 12-4 run to go up 46-29 at the 17:54-mark. Stevenson stretched the lead out to 19 points at 50-31 before five quick points from the Lions made it a 50-36 game at the 15:05-mark. A Mustang three-pointer at the 12:31-mark would make it a 21-point game at 60-39. Then the Albright comeback commenced. The Lions first used a short 9-4 run to bring the deficit down to 64-48 at the 9:33-mark. Albright then went on a 9-2 run to bring the score down to 68-57 at the 6:50-mark as the Mustangs began a long stretch without a field goal. Albright would continue the comeback with a 13-1 run to make it a one-point game at 71-70 with 3:44 left in the second half following a layup from Majekodunmi. Stevenson would finally break a stretch of 5:59 without a field goal with a three-pointer to go up 74-70 before adding a free throw on the next possession to take a 75-70 lead with 2:21 left. Two free throws from Majekodunmi made it a 75-72 game, and then the Mustangs had errant passes stolen by junior DeLascio Dancy on its next two possessions. The second of which allowed Majekodunmi to convert a three-point play following a lay-up and foul to suddenly tie the game at 75. Dancy then stole a third pass from the Mustangs and found Majekodunmi on a fastbreak to put the Lions up 77-75 with 1:11 left in the second half. Both teams could not convert points on its next possessions, and Stevenson would then tie the game on a pair of free throws with 5.4 seconds left following a foul under the basket. On the Lions ensuing inbound, Majekodunmi grabbed the pass and was fouled with 3.7 seconds left to send him to the line. Majekodunmi missed the first one before converting his second to put the Lions up 78-77. Stevenson's last second heave from half court would just bank off the rim to complete the comeback for Albright.
 
The Lions went 27-of-57 (47.4%) from the field overall after going 53.1% (17-of-32) in the second half. Albright went just 27.8% (5-of-18) from three-point range, but tallied a solid 79.2 percent (19-of-24) mark from the free throw line behind Majekodunmi going 13-of-16 from the stripe. Albright held a 34-29 rebounding advantage for the game and forced 17 Mustang turnovers with 11 coming in the second half. Meanwhile, the Mustangs went 45.5 percent (25-of-55) from the field after shooting 56.5 percent in the second half. Stevenson went 11-of-24 (45.8%) from beyond the arc and 16-of-22 (72.7%) from the free throw line. The Mustangs forced 18 Lion turnovers and tallied 18 points off of them, but only forced four in the second half.
 
Montaque Wright led the Mustangs with a team-high 27 points, and tallied seven steals, six rebounds, along with four assists. Mark Terrell added 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting along with eight rebounds, while Evan Joseph posted 12 points and a game-high eight assists.
 
Albright will return to action on Wednesday, February 20^th as they will travel to face Arcadia in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament semifinals at 7 p.m. This will be the second-straight year the teams will have faced in the tournament semifinals.