Box Score The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team opened its 41st season of play with a 63-45 loss at Eastern on Saturday. Chargers' senior Dan Karl led all scorers with 25 points, but it was not enough as the Eagles forced 30 LBC turnovers and grabbed 29 offensive rebounds.

LBC turned the ball over 15 times in the first half, but trailed by just nine, 31-22. The Eagles (1-1) turned up the tempo in the second half and began crashing the boards. Eastern grabbed 16 of its 29 offensive boards in the second half and finished the game with 33 more shots taken than the Chargers. 

"We held them to 32 percent shooting, but when you get outshot by 33, it's tough to make that percentage matter," Chargers' Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "We can't give the opposing team that many extra possessions, but I'm proud of the way the guys hung in there the whole way."

Karl, who scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half, kept the Chargers in the game, but Eastern's ability on the boards was simply too much for the Chargers who ran into foul trouble.

"Dan was great," Tague said. "I don't think he has missed a shot in a couple of weeks."

Despite the loss, Tague said there were positives that LBC can use going forward and the game highlighted those aspects of the game in which the Chargers must improve.

"We need to work on finishing defensive possessions with a rebound," Tague said. "Offensively, we need to hand the pressure better and our timing needs to improve. However, overall, our defense has really improved over the last couple of weeks and I thought we actually played pretty well defensively today."

The Chargers shot 46 percent [20-of-45] from the floor, but were just 1-of-9 from the free throw line. Corey Leonard finished with eight points and eight rebounds, while Jon Bird and Keith Keltner each had four points.

LBC will look to improve over the next few days before heading out to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. They will take part in the UW-Platteville Thanksgiving Classic next Saturday and Sunday. The Chargers face host UW-Platteville on Saturday night at 8 p.m.