STEVENSON, Md.--The Hood College men's basketball team (14-10, 8-7 CAC) dropped a 78-73 decision to the Villa Julie College Mustangs (7-17, 5-10 CAC) Wednesday in a Capital Athletic Conference game.

Villa Julie scored the first eight points of the ballgame but the Blazers countered with a 10-0 run of their own to take a 10-8 lead at the 13:57 mark of the first half. The lead flipflopped five more times before VJC took the lead for good on a Jeremy Bernard layup with just under 10 minutes to play in the stanza. The Mustangs, who drilled seven three-pointers in the first 20 minutes, led by as many as 12 in the half and owned a 44-35 edge at halftime.

Hood chipped away at the deficit in the second half, closing to within one, 58-57, on a triple by Mike McCarrick midway through the half, but the Mustangs ripped off 10 straight points to push the lead back to 11 with 4:30 to play. Greg Woody scored nine of Villa Julie's 10 points in the spurt. Despite missing 14 free throws in the contest, including 10 in the final 2:18, the Blazers were unable to come up with the clutch basket down the stretch and suffered their third straight defeat.

Ryan Junghans paced Hood with 18 points while Mark McGlone netted 16 and McCarrick tallied 10 off the bench.

Woody finished with a game-high 27 points to lead four Mustangs in double figures.

The Blazers, now tied with St. Mary's College for fourth place in the CAC standings, have one regular season game left on the docket when they host eighth-place Salisbury University Saturday at 4 p.m. at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School. Hood will recognize its lone senior, Arthur Claybon, before the contest.