WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.—The Hood College men's basketball team (4-2, 1-1 Commonwealth) was defeated by Lycoming College (5-1, 2-0 Commonwealth) 78-76 to give the Blazers its first conference loss of the season. It was a game of missed chances for the Blazers as they relinquished too many opportunities throughout the game to come out on top.

Senior forward Justin Stone had a career game as he did it on all fronts for the Blazers. Stone scored 18 points on 8-13 shooting and grabbed a career high 19 rebounds for the double-double. Junior guard Justin Bowens tied a career high with 16 points, while going 6-9 from the floor. Junior forward Jeremy Veres also contributed nicely for Tom Dickman's side, as he came up one rebound short of a double-double with 13 points and nine boards, which were both career highs. Senior guard Trey Quinn also had a nice game scoring five points, but contributed ten rebounds, which was good for a career high and distributed eight assists tying a career high.

Hood got off to a quick start to begin the first half as an early 9-4 run saw the Blazers go in front. It was an up tempo first half that saw both teams scoring points at a rapid rate. Lycoming came storming back though and took their first lead of the game off a three from Rob Pillow IV at the 8:02 mark of the first half. Pillow IV scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half to help keep Lycoming afloat. The team's went back and forth throughout the rest of the half with the Blazers getting the last points off two Stone free throws to take a 47-46 lead into the break.

The second half saw much more defense than the first as both teams were trying to gain momentum in the second stanza. The Warriors jumped out to an eight point lead after two threes from Lycoming's Ihsaan Davis. Hood would answer with two Stone buckets, but would fall behind by nine after a three point play from Lycoming's Justin Miller to give Lycoming its biggest lead of the game.

Hood battled back once again though, as this season's leading scorer Cameron Cook hit two shots in succession to bring Hood to within four. Lycoming's leading scorer Kevin Anthony hit a bucket of his own to bring the Warrior lead back to six with just 5:09 remaining. Anthony ended with 16 points and nine rebounds.

The Blazers had one more comeback in them as three straight buckets by Veres, Stone, and Bowens brought Hood to within two 74-72 with just three minutes remaining. Both teams traded baskets until Veres hit a layup with 45.0 seconds remaining to tie the game at 76. The winning layup came from Lycoming's Anthony Martin with just 10.0 seconds remaining and the Blazers were unable to get a final Quinn layup to go for overtime.

The Blazers will look back and know that free throw shooting was a big cause to the loss tonight going just 14-31 from the charity stripe. Hood did out rebound Lycoming 50-34, but had 14 turnovers to Lycoming's nine.

The Blazers return to action this Wednesday when they take on Messiah College in Commonwealth conference action. The game is set to begin at 8 p.m.