The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team opened its season with a dud on Saturday as Messiah outplayed the Chargers for 40 minutes en route to a 92-66 victory in Grantham, Pa. The Falcons had four players score in double figures led by Zac Hoy who had a game-high 19 points. 

Messiah jumped out to a 12-3 lead just 4:03 into the game and though the Chargers would cut the deficit to six on a 3-pointer by Naheer Mirza 30 seconds later, Lancaster Bible would never get the score closer the rest of the game. 

Trailing 47-33 at half, the Chargers chipped away and after another 3-pointer by Mirza, trailed just 55-45 with 16:17 to play, but the Falcons went on a 14-0 run over the next four minutes and effectively put the game out of reach as they led 69-45 with just over 12 minutes to play.

Messiah eventually built the lead to 31 points with 4:44 remaining as the 92 points given up by Lancaster Bible is the most since February 7, 2014 when Morrisville State defeated the Chargers, 94-86.

"We were awful on offense, defense and in transition," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "Messiah showed us how to play and execute as a team and they kicked out tails."

Mirza led the Chargers with 13 points, while Albert Suniga and Herbie Brown each had 10 points. Junior Dondre Perry added nine points, eight rebounds and three assists and fellow junior Luke Roundy had five points and seven boards.

Lancaster Bible has not won a season-opening game since the 2008-09 season when the Chargers defeated D'Youville, 70-61. Messiah has dealt the Chargers their season-opening loss in three of the past five seasons.

The Chargers return to the court on Tuesday when they host Elizabethtown at 7 p.m. at Horst Athletic Center.