The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team dropped its third game in four tries on Friday evening as Messiah defeated the Chargers, 70-64 at Horst Athletic Center. The loss drops the Chargers to 2-5 this season, while the Falcons snapped a five-game losing streak and improved to 3-5.

How it Happened: After the teams exchanged early buckets, Lancaster Bible's Brett Cataudella completed a three-point play and gave the Chargers a 13-7 lead with 14:17 remaining in the opening half. Messiah battled back over the next 3:23 and tied the game at 18-18 on a jumper from Luke Cable with 10:54 to play. 

As the Chargers continued to struggle from the floor and turn the ball over, the Falcons opened up a four point lead, 24-20 on a layup from Logan Long with 6:26 remaining in the first half. The lead grew to 10 at 34-24 as Rob McWilliams knocked down his second 3-pointer of the game with 1:52 to play. Another trey by Messiah, this one from Colin Sareyka, gave the Falcons a 13-point advantage and after the teams exchanged free throws with under a minute to play, Messiah took a 39-26 lead into halftime.

The second half began as the first one ended with Lancaster Bible struggling defensively and Messiah increasing its lead. The Chargers' offense finally began to wake up, but the Falcons did much of what they wanted in their offensive end and took a 19-point lead, 55-36, on a 3-pointer from Neil Murren with 14:38 remaining.

A 3-pointer from Jason Kuntzelman a minute later cut the deficit to 16 and another from Kuntzelman 37 seconds later, slashed Lancaster Bible's deficit to 13. Freshman Luke Beers got in on the action just over a minute later and knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game to make it a 10-point game at 55-45. Buckets from Kuntzelman and Alex Whitt trimmed Messiah's lead to six and Beers knocked down his second triple of the half to bring the Chargers to within three at 55-52. 

Austin Brown converted both of his free throws with 7:57 remaining and completed Lancaster Bible's 18-0 run as the Chargers were within one point, 55-54. Murren finally snapped Messiah's scoring drought of 7:12 and converted a layup and another layup from Long, just over two minutes later, gave Messiah a 59-54 advantage with 4:58 remaining as Lancaster Bible went cold again from the floor.

Murren knocked down a pair of free throws with 3:41 to play, but Kuntzelman broke Lancaster Bible's 4:28 scoring drought 12 seconds later with a 3-pointer and the Chargers were back within four, 61-57 with 3:29 left. Herbie Brown's free throws cut the deficit to two, but a jumper from Josh Clippinger and a 3-pointer from Murren restored Messiah's seven point lead and the Falcons never looked back, winning by the same margin.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 44 percent (22-of-50) from the floor and 92.3 percent (12-of-13) from the free throw line...Messiah shot 40 percent (24-of-60) from the field and shot 73.7 percent (14-of-19) from the charity stripe...Kuntzelman led the Chargers with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc...Herbie Brown added 13 points and 13 rebounds for his second double-double of the season...Bill Livezey and Austin Brown each chipped in with eight points and five boards, while Whitt and Beers each had six points and six rebounds...Logan Long had a game-high 17 points for the Falcons as he led five Messiah players in double figures.

The Coach Says: "It's obviously disappointing, but I was happy with the fight our team had in the second half," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We got ourselves back into the game with good defense and great shots, but just couldn't get over the hump."

On the Team's First Semester: "This is still a very young team," Filzen said. "We know we have expectations and that is great, but there are simply growing pains that teams must go through and we are going through them. There are spurts like the second half at Franklin & Marshall, the second half against Penn St. Berks and tonight where we play great on both ends, and there are times where we have trouble guarding anyone and can't shoot. It will take time, but we need to be more consistent, both in practice and in games, and get ourselves on track. I still believe this team is very talented and still believe we will be playing our best basketball in late January and throughout February."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 1-9 all-time against Messiah, with the lone win coming last season in Grantham, Pa...Kuntzelman's 16 points are a season-high and his fourth game in double figures...Brown's 13 rebounds are a career-high...The last time Lancaster Bible had three home losses in a season was 2013-14 when the Chargers went 12-3 at Horst Athletic Center.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible is off until the new year when the Chargers play Juniata on Jan. 3, 2017 in Huntingdon, Pa...Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.