Albion, Mich. - The 14th-ranked Alma College men's basketball team suffered a 71-66 defeat to Albion College on Wednesday (Feb. 17) night at Kresge Gymnasium after overcoming a halftime deficit in the second half. With the loss, the Scots drop to 18-6 overall and 12-2 in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

The setback solidifies Alma as the second seed in the upcoming MIAA Tournament, which will take place at Hope College on Friday-Saturday, Feb. 26-27. The Scots still have a chance to tie the Flying Dutchmen for the regular-season title, but in that scenario, Hope will get the top seed through the league's tie-breaking system. Hope defeated Kalamazoo on the road by a 90-79 margin.

Albion entered the game already assured of a third-place finish, and now the two schools will meet again next week in the MIAA semifinals.

Senior Scott Nikodemski (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) led the Scots with 16 points, including 14 in the second half, while junior Chase Fairchild (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) chipped in 15 points, making three triples. Sophomore Jason Beckman (Shelby, Mich./Shelby) also scored in double-figures, netting 10 points.

Albion started the game on a 12-3 run to open the game and never trailed in the opening 20 minutes. The Scots were able to tie the game a 26-26 with 2:59 to play on a jump shot by Tyler Edwards, but the Britons responded by scoring five of the last eight points in the stanza to lead, 31-29, going into the break.

Alma opened the second half with an 8-2 run to take the lead and built up an eight-point advantage at 53-45 with 9:36 to play, but Albion mounted a comeback, scoring seven of the game's next nine points to take a three-point lead with 3:52 remaining. The Britons would hold on from their to hand the Scots their second loss in four games.

The Scots finished the game with 51.1 percent shooting from the field, making 24 of their 47 shots, while Albion made 41 percent of its attempts in the game. Robert Ryan led the Britons with a game-high 20 points, including 4-for-4 shooting from three-point range.

Alma will conclude the regular-season on Saturday, Feb. 20, when it travels to Olivet. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. at the Cutler Event Center on the campus of Olivet College.

NOTES

• DJ Beckman played in his 100th career game tonight, becoming the third player in Alma College history to play in 100 or more games.

QUOTES

Head Coach Sam Hargraves

"It's a very interesting matchup when we play Albion. They have strengths that we don't have, and we have strengths that they don't have. Tonight, they were better at doing what they do well. Their main strength is toughness, yet physical, but even more mental. Certainly more than we had tonight. We weren't mentally tough enough to hold on to a decent lead that we built."