The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team opened 2017 on Tuesday night in Huntingdon, Pa., but unfortunately for the Chargers, 2017 opened just as 2016 had closed -- with a loss. The Chargers dropped to 2-6 this season after a 77-55 setback against Juniata, which improved to 8-4 overall.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible opened the first half slowly as the Chargers managed just two points in the first 6:15 of the contest. The Eagles let the Chargers stay in the game however as Juniata didn't take complete advantage of Lancaster Bible's slow start and led just 16-6 midway through the first 20 minutes. 

Juniata tried to pull away just a minute later and led 20-6, but the Chargers' offense finally woke up and used a 9-0 run to close the deficit to five. Sophomore Quentin Davis, playing his first game of the season, capped the run with a layup and the Chargers trailed just 20-15 with 5:20 remaining.

The Eagles restored an eight-point lead later in the half, but Lancaster Bible chipped away again and a layup from Jason Kuntzelman with under a minute to play closed the gap to two at 28-26, which ended up being the halftime score.

The second half began just as the first as Lancaster Bible struggled from the floor offensively, however this time, the Eagles made the Chargers pay. Juniata used a 16-5 run over the first 4:21 of the second half to open a 44-31 lead. 

Lancaster Bible never regained its footing and trailed by as many as 29 late in the second half before falling, 77-55.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot just 37.5 percent (18-of-48) from the floor, including 6-of-20 from beyond the arc...Juniata shot 54.4 percent (31-of-57) and 7-of-18 from 3-point range...Kuntzelman led the Chargers with 13 points, while Davis had 10 points and seven rebounds in his season debut...Luke Beers added eight points and four boards, while Bill Livezey had seven points...Marcus Lee led four players in double figures with 18 points for the Eagles.

The Coach Says: "We started both halves very slowly and just didn't have the intensity we needed," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We got ourselves back into the first half, but couldn't recover in the second half."

"We've had some very good practices leading up to tonight, but our performance sort of tosses those out the window," Filzen said. "We have to translate practice to the game. We want the guys to keep learning and we have one more non-conference game to do everything we can to be ready for conference play which is the rest of our season starting on Sunday. We are excited to play a very good Susquehanna team on Thursday and keep getting better."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 0-3 all-time against Juniata...This was the first meeting between the teams since the 2007-08 season, which the Eagles won, 80-69...All three of the games in the series have been played in Huntingdon...The 55 points scored are a season-low for the Chargers.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible heads to Selinsgrove, Pa. to face 14th-ranked Susquehanna on Thursday night at 7 p.m.