GRANTHAM, Pa.—The Hood College men's basketball team (10-6, 4-5 Commonwealth) was defeated by Messiah College (10-6, 6-4 Commonwealth) 66-52 in conference action Saturday night. It was the second time this season the Blazers were downed by the Falcons and it dropped Hood to 1 ½ games behind Messiah in the conference standings.

Junior guard Cameron Cook got to a milestone on the evening though, as the Calvert Hall product scored his 1,000th  career point as a member of the Hood basketball team. Cook is just the fourth player in program history to reach 1,000 career points just days after he became the program's all-time leader in made threes. Cook only registered six points on the evening, but it was enough for him to reach the prestigious milestone.

As for the game itself, it was one that Hood let get away from themselves in the second half after both teams had an even first stanza. Junior guard Justin Bowens was the only Blazer to reach double-figures with 12 points on 5-10 shooting. Freshman guard Matt Galloway was the only other Blazer to have a decent night shooting, scoring nine points, while going 4-5 from the floor. Messiah's forwards ended up being too much for the Blazers to handle, as Taylor Groff and Brad Bolen scored 22 and 20 points respectively.

The first half saw both teams having trouble getting much of anything going offensively. Messiah opened the game off on a 7-0 run with four quick points from Bolen triggering the run. Hood got back in the contest with six straight points from Bowens and a jumper from Galloway. The Blazers took a four point lead after a Trey Quinn layup and the next basket for the Blazers was the milestone layup by Cook. Both teams went into the half cold with a Reggie Daniels three pointer cutting the Falcons lead to one at 23-22.

The second half was mainly a story of free throws, as Messiah attempted 28 in just the second half alone. The 29 made free throws in the game by Messiah was the most makes a team has had against Hood this season. The Blazers jumped out to a five point lead after a Galloway layup early in the second half, but a 21-6 run by Messiah pushed the lead to 51-41 at the 7:08 mark. Hood would not get closer than ten the rest of the game and was resigned to defeat by the Falcons for the second time this season.

The Blazers do not have time to dwell over the defeat, as they get right back to action this Monday night against Alvernia University. The conference matchup will begin at 8 p.m. at BB&T Arena.