CHESTER, Pa. – The Albright Lions men's basketball team picked up an important 74-71 win on the road over Widener on Wednesday night in MAC Commonwealth play.
 
With the win, the Lions improve to 12-10 overall and stay alive in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament race as they improve to 7-6 in conference play. Meanwhile, the first-place Pride fall to 18-4 overall and 11-2 in MAC Commonwealth play. It was the first home conference loss for Widener all season.
 
Junior Troy Smoot led the Lions with a team-high 15 points off the bench behind going 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Smoot also pulled down four rebounds and tallied two assists. Classmate Sidney Brown scored 14 points along with grabbing six rebounds and three steals in the win. Junior Samuel Majekodunmi added 12 points and seven rebounds, while first-year Jordan Guerrero tallied nine points and eight rebounds in his first start of the season.
 
Albright started strong as they scored the first five points of the game to go up 5-0 just 1:24 into the game. The Pride came back out of a timeout by scoring 11-straight points to go up 11-5 at the 12:46-mark of the first half as the Lions went scoreless for a span of 6:23. The Pride extended its lead to 16-9 at the 11:30-mark of the first half before Brown scored five quick points to make it a 16-14 game just under a minute later. The Lions stretched its run to 14-4 to take back the lead at 23-20 with 7:09 left in the first half following a three-pointer from first-year Robert Mangum. Albright continued to maintain its lead for the rest of the first half, and took a 37-29 advantage into the locker rooms behind a 7-0 run to close out the first 20 minutes.
 
The Pride opened the second half with five quick points to cut the Albright lead down to 36-34, but the Lions responded with a 9-2 run to go up 45-36 at the 17:17-mark of the second half. Widener responded with a 12-4 run to make it a one-point game at 49-48 with 14:39 left in regulation. However, the Lions once again responded to any possible extended Pride momentum with a 9-3 run to go back up 58-51 at the 12:53-mark of the second half. Widener was finally able to gain the lead back at the 8:15-mark of the second half at 64-63 behind an 8-2 run before the Lions retook the lead with four-straight points to go up 67-64. A three-pointer from Smoot gave the Lions a 70-65 lead at the 4:08-mark of the second half, but the Pride would not go away as they scored four-straight points to make it a 70-69 game with 2:19 left in regulation. However, it was Smoot that came up in the clutch for the Lions as he scored the final four points for the team, including two free throws with five seconds left in regulation. Widener had a chance to force overtime in the final seconds, but a three-pointer at the buzzer just missed the basket to seal the win for the Lions.
 
The Lions shot 42.4 percent (28-of-66) from the field and went 12-of-32 (37.5%) from three-point range. Albright went just 6-of-16 (37.5%) from the free throw line, but held a 47-41 rebounding advantage that led to a sizable 18-2 advantage in second chance points. The Lions also scored 21 points off 17 Pride turnovers. Meanwhile, Widener shot 41.5 percent (27-of-65) from the field and went 10-of-28 (35.7%) from beyond the arc. The Pride went 7-of-10 (70%) from the free throw line and got 35 points from its bench.
 
Kolbey Woodard led all scorers on the floor with a game-high 17 points off the bench behind going 7-of-10 from the field, while grabbing eight rebounds. Steven Matlack added 16 points off the bench, while Jared Peters nearly missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds.
 
The Lions will return to action on Saturday, February 15^th as they will host Lycoming at 3 p.m. in MAC Commonwealth play.