The Lightning women's basketball team dropped the first leg of a two-game non-conference swing through Pennsylvania on Monday evening, never leading in losing to host Messiah College 73-50.

The Falcons jumped out to a quick 9-0 advantage and maintained a margin of at least seven points throughout before breaking the game open in the second half. Following Paula Robinson's layup that brought the Lightning to within eight at 32-24 with 18:23 remaining, the Falcons pumped out a 16-8 run behind 12 combined points from Michele Schleich and Taylor Miller that pushed the Messiah lead to a comfortable 48-32 with 9:38 left in the game.

In the losing effort, the Lightning's 'Big Three' of Amanda De La Cruz, Louvinia Hayes and Jaleesa Gordon combined for 42 of Lehman's 50 points, with De La Cruz's 21 points leading the trio.

Messiah was led by Miller who notched a game-high 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting, 5-of-12 from the three-point line. Nikki Hess and Schleich also recorded double digit scoring games with 15 and 10 points respectively.

Lehman is back in action on Wednesday when it wraps up its two-game road trip with a matinee against Keystone College.