The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team continued its challenging non-conference schedule on Wednesday by playing its first ranked opponent season, and though the Chargers battled, they couldn't get their final bucket to fall and lost to 23rd-ranked Juniata, 57-54 at Horst Athletic Center. The loss drops the Chargers to 8-4 this season, while the Eagles stayed perfect and improved to 12-0.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible scored the game's first five points, but quickly saw the lead erased by a 10-0 run over 2:48 by the Eagles. Juniata eventually led, 16-7 after a 3-pointer from Jake Holsopple with 12:51 to play in the first half, but Lancaster Bible chipped away and trailed by just two, 17-15 after a layup from junior Christo Majok with 9:29 remaining in the half.

Junior Quentin Davis gave Lancaster Bible its first lead since the opening minutes with a layup to make it 21-20, and then fed a nice pass to Majok on the Chargers next possession and the junior from Juba, South Sudan slammed it home to give Lancaster Bible a 23-20 advantage. The teams played even ball the rest of the half and senior Herbie Brown's layup with six seconds left tied the game at 30-30.

Juniata scored 13 of the first 16 points of the second half and grabbed a 43-33 lead on a jumper from Brandon Martinazzi with 15:47 to play. The Eagles took their biggest lead of the game, 49-38, on a 3-pointer from Nathan Markey with 13:21 remaining, but Lancaster Bible answered with six straight points and trailed 49-44 after Davis hit one of two free throws with 11:38 to play. 

After the teams went cold from the field for a few minutes, back-to-back buckets from Herbie Brown and fellow senior Jalen Archer cut the Chargers' deficit to three, 51-48, but Juniata upped its lead to seven, 55-48 just a minute later. Lancaster Bible wouldn't go away however, and after Herbie Brown hit one of two free throws, the Chargers trailed just 55-52 with 3:44 left. 

Juniata's Seth Brewer hit a pair of free throws less than a minute later, and the teams once again went cold from the field, and turned the ball over. Majok knocked down a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game with 36 seconds to play and Lancaster Bible played a great defensive possession and got a rebound with 6.4 seconds left and called timeout. Out of the timeout, the Chargers worked the ball to senior Austin Brown, but he was guarded well and his 3-point shot fell short and Juniata pounced on the rebound as time expired.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot just 18-of-47 (38.3 percent) from the field and was 5-of-21 from 3-point range...Juniata shot 23-of-58 (39.7 percent) from the floor and was 6-of-15 from distance...Lancaster Bible held a 34-30 edge in rebounds...Herbie Brown had a team-high 13 points for the Chargers on 5-of-10 shooting, while Majok had 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocks...Archer was the other Lancaster Bible player in double figures with 10 points...Austin Brown and freshman Britton Beachy each added six points...Marcus Lee had a game-high 17 points for Juniata.

The Coach Says: "We're close, but still have some things to clean up to reach that next level," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "I thought we were solid defensively tonight and didn't lose focus for 40 minutes on the defensive end. Juniata is tough team to guard with all of their movement and screens, and I was happy with our play on that end. If you hold a team to 57 points, you should win."

On the road ahead: "This has been a tough stretch of games, but I think we are ready for conference play to resume and excited to get back to work," Filzen said. "I think we are capable of playing with good teams and our non-conference games have shown that."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 0-4 all-time against Juniata...The Chargers lost, 77-55 last season to the Eagles in Huntingdon, Pa...Juniata was averaging 83.7 points per game prior to Wednesday's game and the 57 points scored are the fewest in a game for the Eagles...Wednesday marked the first time in program history that Juniata played a game as a top-25 ranked team...The 54 points scored by Lancaster Bible are also a season-low...The Chargers are now 3-2 at home this season.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible returns to North Eastern Athletic Conference play next Tuesday, Jan. 9, when the Chargers welcome Gallaudet to Horst Athletic Center...The Chargers defeated the Bison, 74-70 on Dec. 5 in Washington, D.C...Tuesday's tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.