The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team saw its unbelievable season come to an end on Friday night in the nation's capital as the Chargers lost to Wooster, 96-83 in the NCAA Division III Tournament First Round. The Chargers finish their season with a record of 27-1, just one win shy of last year's program record of 28. Wooster advances to the second round and will face Endicott on Saturday at 7 p.m.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible opened the game with a missed shot and a turnover, but Jordan Mellinger's 3-pointer 1:14 into the contest still gave the Chargers a 3-0 lead. Back-to-back jumpers from Wooster's Dan Fanelly gave the Fighting Scots a 4-3 lead and Lancaster Bible would never lead again. A 3-pointer by Wooster's Spencer Williams and a layup from Reece Dupler capped a 9-0 run by the Fighting Scots that CJ Dunston finally broke with back-to-back free throws with 16:21 remaining in the first half.

The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes as a layup from sophomore Herbie Brown cut the Chargers' deficit to five at 18-13 with 12:19 to play in the opening half. A 6-0 run by Wooster over the next three minutes opened its lead to double digits and another jumper from Fanelly with 4:56 to play gave the Fighting Scots a 33-18 advantage. 

Lancaster Bible's Bryce Williams scored seven of the team's next nine points and his free throws with 1:26 remaining in the first cut the Chargers' deficit to 10, 37-27. A layup from Mellinger brought the deficit to single digits at 40-31, but Spencer Williams hit one of two free throws with six seconds left to give Wooster a 10-point lead, 41-31, at the break.

Wooster stormed out of the gate in the second half and used an 11-4 run over the first 4:01 to take a 52-35 lead. The lead continued to grow and the Fighting Scots took their biggest lead of the game at 70-47 with 8:37 remaining. Lancaster Bible tried desperately to get back into the game and trimmed Wooster's lead to 16, 72-56, with 6:42 to play, but the Chargers simply had no answer for Fanelly as he scored 30 points in the second half, en route to a game-high 45 points. 

Lancaster Bible used a late 11-3 run to produce the final score of 96-83. The 96 points given up were the second-most this season by the Chargers.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 25-of-57 (43.9 percent) from the floor and just 7-of-25 (28 percent) from beyond the arc...After struggling at the free throw line recently, the Chargers were an impressive 26-of-32 (81.3 percent) from the charity stripe on Friday...Junior Bryce Williams led the Chargers with 29 points, as the Spring Lake Park, Minn. native was a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line...Senior CJ Dunstonhad 14 points, five assists and two steals for Lancaster Bible...Dunston closes his impressive career with 1,531 points, the fourth-most in program history...Junior Kurt Keltner added 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Chargers...Senior Jordan Mellinger was the fourth and final player in double figures with 10 points...Fanelly had 45 points on 21-of-24 shooting and also added 12 rebounds and six assists...He is the first Wooster player to score 40 points in almost 40 years...Fanelly, Williams and Milt Davis combined to score 77 of Wooster's 96 points...The Fighting Scots shot 39-of-66 (59.1 percent) from the floor.

The Coach Says: "This has been an unbelievable ride this season," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "These seniors have laid a foundation for this program and we will be back. This hurts right now, but there is so much to be proud of this season and when the time comes to sit back and think about what we did, there are going to be so many positives."

Going Forward..."We will be back because I think we are building something special here," Filzen said. "We have things to learn on and off the court. We have to schedule some tougher games and we need to pay attention to details more, but we will be back because I think this is a good team with really good players."

Extra! Extra!: Friday was Lancaster Bible's first loss in over a calendar year as the Chargers' previous loss was March 1, 2015 when SUNY Cobleskill defeated Lancaster Bible, 49-46 in the NEAC Final...SeniorDondre Perry finished with four points and 1,167 for his career, the 16th-most in program history...Dunston caps his career with 887 rebounds, the second-most in program history...Williams ends his first season with the Chargers with 573 points, the sixth-most in a single-season in program history and the most since Drew Karschner scored 613 during the 2005-06 season...Williams' 20.5 points per game are the most since Sam Rempel had 26.8 per contest during the 2000-01 campaign...The 2,637 points scored this season are the most in program history...The Chargers averaged 94.2 points per game, which is also the most in program history...Friday's game was the final contest in the careers of seniors Nick Monroe, Jon Bird, CJ Dunston,Dondre Perry, Marquis Boone and Luke Roundy...The Red Sea and Charger Nation were in full force as they made up a large percentage of the announced attendance of 511...The two teams, which had never faced one another prior to Friday night, met at halfcourt for a post-game prayer following the contest...Many in attendance and behind the scenes who were unaware this is something Lancaster Bible has done throughout the season, thought it to be one of the coolest moments of the night.