The popular Christmas song currently being played is entitled, "Baby It's Cold Outside," and for the Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team on Friday night, that song could have been changed to, "Baby, It's Cold Inside," as the Chargers shot just 3-of-35 from 3-point range en route to a 73-56 defeat at the hands of North Eastern Athletic Conference South Division rival, Gallaudet. The regular season NEAC loss is the first for the Chargers since Jan. 31, 2015 at Gallaudet, a span of 27 games and the loss snaps an even longer streak as the Chargers hadn't lost at home during the regular season since Dec. 16, 2013 against Mount Aloysius.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible and Gallaudet began the game with offensive outbursts as the teams battled back-and-forth to a 13-13 tie over the first 5:38. Freshman Brett Cataudella's layup with 14:22 left knotted the game at 13-13 and junior Bill Livezey's jumper 1:18 later gave Lancaster Bible a 15-13 advantage. After back-to-back free throws from Micah Brown gave Lancaster Bible a four-point edge, 19-15, Gallaudet responded with six straight points to take a 21-19 lead.

Both teams struggled to keep their early offensive outputs going, but the seeds of the Chargers' struggles were being planted as Lancaster Bible scored just four points in the final 4:47 of the half and Gallaudet took a 34-31 lead into halftime.

Lancaster Bible's offensive woes were in full bloom early in the second half as Herbie Brown's two layups were the only baskets for the Chargers in the first 6:06. In the process, the Bison took a nine-point lead, 44-35 and though Luke Beers' two free throws cut it to seven for a short time, Joshua McGriff's layup at 15:03 restored Gallaudet's nine-point advantage.

Cataudella broke the Lancaster Bible drought at 13:54 with another layup, but it would be the Chargers' last bucket for over four minutes and Gallaudet took advantage this time as they went on a 6-0 run and took a 52-39 lead with 10:37 remaining. 

Lancaster Bible tried everything they could to break their poor shooting, but nothing would go down from long-range and the Bison opened a 17-point lead, 64-47, on free throws from Raymond Nelson. Nelson was everywhere for the Bison all night long and his play down the stretch kept Gallaudet's lead intact and sent the Chargers to their first home regular season NEAC loss since Feb. 13, 2013.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot just 29.6 percent (21-of-71) and was the aforementioned 3-of-35 (8.6 percent) from 3-point range...The Chargers even struggled from the free throw line where they were 11-of-20...Gallaudet meanwhile, shot 47.4 percent (27-of-57) and was 17-of-27 (63 percent) from the charity stripe...Herbie Brown and Cataudella each had 12 points to lead the Chargers, while Cataudella also added seven rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass...Micah Brown, Jason Kuntzelman and Austin Brown each had eight points for the Chargers...McGriff had a game-high 24 points and 16 rebounds for the Bison, while Nelson finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists and for steals.

The Coach Says: "I think we have good shooters, this was just one of those nights," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We had open shots, but struggled in may other areas than just shooting. Our attention to detail was not good and we didn't execute a lot of the things we talked about prior to the game."

On the Play of Gallaudet's Raymond Nelson: "He played well here last season too (15 points, three assists) and he's good player," Filzen said. "He did things he wanted to do tonight and he played to his strengths. We need to be better against him in February."

On What the Loss Means: "There is no panic and we knew there were going to be some bumps in the road," Filzen said. "We have talent on this team and we've said all along that we want to be playing our best basketball in January and February. This game shows us that we still have lots of work to do to get to that point and we need to make sure we are paying attention to detail and executing at a high level as a team."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 6-7 all-time against Gallaudet...The loss snaps a three-game winning streak against the Bison...Lancaster Bible hadn't lost to Gallaudet at Horst Athletic Center since Dec. 8, 2012 when the Bison won, 71-60...The 56 points scored are the fewest for the Chargers since Lancaster Bible scored 46 in the 2015 NEAC Final loss to SUNY Cobleskill (49-46) on Mar. 1, 2015.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible hosts Wilson on Saturday at 3 p.m.