MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – Despite their late rally, the Albright men's basketball team fell 63-62 at Messiah in the MAC Commonwealth opener on Tuesday evening.
 
With the loss, the Lions open up conference play 0-1 and fall to 2-3 overall. Meanwhile, the Falcons improve to 3-3 overall and 1-0 in MAC Commonwealth action.
 
Four Lions reached double figures in scoring on the evening. Senior Isaiah Harris tallied a double-double with a team-leading 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the floor and a game-high 11 boards. Senior Sidney Brown was active on both sides of the ball, tallying 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field and a career-high six steals. Senior Corey Simmons added ten points on 5-for-8 shooting and seven rebounds. Junior Jordan Guerrero posted ten points on 2-for-8 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe off the bench.
 
Messiah came out of the gate hungry for a win scoring on the first possession to take an early lead. Simmons tied the game up at two to get Albright on the board. The Falcons then went on a 10-2 run to take a 12-4 lead at the 15:44-mark. Simmons and Brown closed the gap with back-to-back buckets for the Lions, cutting their deficit to just four points. The teams exchanged baskets but the Lions failed to take the lead throughout the first half. A pull-up jumper from Brown and a pair of free throws got Albright within three at the 12:13-mark, bringing the score to 15-12. Messiah then used an 11-6 run to pull ahead 26-18. Senior Isaiah Harris snapped the run with a big three-point play to get the Lions within five with just under four minutes left in the half. The Falcons closed out the half with a 6-2 run to hold onto a 32-23 lead entering the break.
 
The Lions came out of the half energized as they went on an 8-2 run to get back within three points of the Falcons. Messiah answered with an 8-1 run of their own to then pull ahead 42-32 at the 14:46-mark. Buckets from junior Sean Miller and Harris then cut the Lions deficit to six. Another 8-2 run from the Falcons gave them their largest lead of the game at 50-38 with 11:51 remaining. Albright then began to rally, scoring ten unanswered points, six from Harris alone, to get within just two points at the 9:26-mark. The two teams traded baskets, but Albright was finally able to take the lead at the 4:20-mark with a layup from Guerrero, bringing the score to 58-57. Messiah took the lead again with back-to-back buckets to pull ahead 61-58 with 1:32 remaining in the game. A pair of free-throws from senior Troy Smoot got Albright back within one. The Falcons added one more basket with just under a minute left, but Miller dished the ball to Harris on the next possession to get the Lions back within one at 63-62 with 34 seconds remaining. Messiah was able to run enough time off the clock to keep Albright from getting off another quality shot to claim the 63-62 conference victory.
 
Albright shot 24-for-63 (38.1%) from the field, 2-for-22 (9.1%) from beyond the arc, and 12-for-17 (70.6%) from the charity stripe. The Lions converted 24 points off turnovers and won the battle on the glass 41-35. Meanwhile, Messiah shot 23-for-56 (41.1%) from the floor, 8-for-23 (34.8%) from beyond the arc, and 9-for-11 (81.8%) from the charity stripe.
 
The Lions return to action Wednesday, Dec. 8 at Alvernia to continue MAC Commonwealth action at 8 p.m.