Mansfield jumped out to a 7-0 lead after 2:30 minutes and never looked back. The Falcons weren't able to ever take a lead as they hovered around the ten-point deficit mark for most of the opening 20 minutes.

"We ran into a very good basketball team tonight," said Messiah head coach, Rick Van Pelt. "I didn't feel we played our best basketball, by any stretch of the imagination, but Mansfield is a tough opponent and you can't get behind and try to outscore them."

For the Falcons, sophomore Jamie Yoder (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) led the way with a team-high 14 points on five-of-11 shooting from the field. Junior Ryan Witmer (Wooster, OH/Triway) pulled down a team and game-high nine rebounds for Messiah, who held a 39-37 advantage on the boards, including an 18-14 advantage on the offensive glass.

Messiah was 23 for 56 (41%) overall from the field but connected on only five of their 20 (25%) attempts from three-point range. At the free-throw line, the Falcons hurt themselves by only hitting 12 of their 24 (50%) attempts.

The Mountaineers hit 30 of their 59 (51%) attempts while connecting on ten of their 24 (42%) attempts from behind the arc. In 24 trips to the line, Mansfield hit 15 (63%) shots.

"Getting behind from the start certainly hurt tonight," stated Van Pelt. "I am proud that our guys on the court didn't stop getting after it and they continued to compete until the end. We can use this as a learning experience and get back to work after our guys return from break."

Messiah returns to action next Tuesday, November 27 when they hit the road to take on Philadelphia Biblical University.