GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Pride avenged their loss on Wednesday against Albright with a 73-68 road win against the Messiah University Falcons on Saturday.

Widener now sits at 12-5 in the regular season and are 6-3 in the MAC Commonwealth.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Pat Holden led Widener in scoring with 22 points on the night. He also hit 2 of 5 from the three point line.
• As a team, the Pride collected six steals. Two of them came from Myles Bright.
• The Pride won the rebounding battle 40-34, with 12 of them being on the offensive end.

HOW IT HAPPENED AT JORDAN COURT IN HITCHCOCK ARENA

The Pride got their first points of the night off a Dominic Dunn layup to tie the score at 2-2. After a brief scoring drought, the Pride finally got to the line. Steven Matlack hit both attempts. A Bright layup with 14:16 to go in the half gave Widener their first lead of the evening at 8-7. Unfortunately for them, they were not able to keep up with the Falcons's hot shooting in the middle of the half, falling behind by 10. Widener, though, kept fighting and was able to knock down more free throws to cut into the deficit. With 2:37 to go, Bright's three-point attempt was good, making it the first-made triple for the Pride of the game. The score was 33-23 Messiah. Dunn was the last player to score for either side. The Pride went to the locker room down 38-27. Overall, the Pride hit 8 of 11 foul shots (72.7%), won the offensive rebound battle 9-2, and tied the Falcons' bench scoring with seven of their own bench points.

Returning from the break, the Pride started off with a 6-0 run. Holden and Matlack scored pull-up jumpers, while Dunn's layup was successful. A few moments later, the Pride erupted for a 11-0 push that gave them the lead 44-41. Messiah answered a few of Widener's buckets before a Holden three-point shot forced the Falcons to call timeout down 53-46. The Pride kept the Falcons at a distance in the middle portion of the half and went up by 10 points with 5:58 remaining. Despite the Falcons getting the score back to five points with 93 second to go, free throws by Xavier Ernest and Holden sealed the game for the Pride. In the final half, Widener hit 4 of 8 triples (50%), held the lead for over 13 minutes, and led the points-off-turnovers battle 20-3 to end the game in a 73-68 victory. As a team, the Pride saw 32 points in the paint, 20 points off turnovers, and eight successful second chances.

UP NEXT
The Pride are back home on Wednesday at Schwartz Athletic Center to host the 13-5 (7-2 MAC Commonwealth) Alvernia University Golden Wolves. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.