FREDERICK, Md.—The Hood College men's basketball team (4-3, 1-2 Commonwealth) was defeated by first-place Messiah College (4-2, 3-0 Commonwealth) 63-53 in a closely-contested conference game Wednesday night. It was a game of runs and the Blazers could not complete their last run of the game falling to the Falcons by 10.

Hood was unable to overcome a barrage of threes from Messiah, as the away side made 10 triples in the game, including six in the first half. Every time it seemed like Hood was going to get back in the game Messiah would seem to hit a dagger from behind the arc. The 47.6 percent effort from three was the highest percentage Hood has given up to an opponent this season.

Senior Justin Stone led the Blazers in scoring with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Junior guard Justin Bowens was the only other Hood player to get into double figures with 13 points on the night. The Falcons defensively targeted Hood's leading scorer Cameron Cook all night and only allowed the junior to get off two shots in the game. Messiah was led by Derek Mosley and Zac Hoy, who both scored 14 points.

The Blazers got off to a good start with Stone scoring eight points in eight minutes to begin the game. Freshman Matt Galloway also contributed off the bench hitting two first-half threes. The Falcons went on 9-0 run over the next three minutes giving the Blazers' 2-3 zone all sorts of fits. Hood battled back as a Trey Quinn three-point play brought the Blazers to within five. Messiah though would ride the momentum of three trifectas taking a nine-point lead into the half.

The Blazers fell behind after two more Messiah treys to begin the second half, but would then go on a 8-0 run of their own spearheaded by sophomore Terell Buyck. Buyck came in off the bench and hit two straight jumpers at a juncture of the game when the team really needed some buckets. The Falcons answered going on a 9-0 run of their own to gain their largest lead of the contest at 16 points. Just when all hope seemed lost Hood sprouted back to life and went on a 13-0 run, that was capped off by a Stone layup to pull within 54-51 at the 2:36 mark. Unfortunately for Hood, the Falcons were the beneficiary of the last run of the game as they scored nine of the last 11 points of the contest to leave Hood searching for answers leaving the game.

The Blazers return to action this Saturday when they hit the road to take on Elizabethtown College in conference action. The game is set to begin at 4 p.m.