PORTLAND, Ore. – In their first ever contest as members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Atheltics (NAIA), the Multnomah University men's basketball team battled with Douglas College in a high offense contest but fell just short, losing 121-115 at home on Friday night.
 
The loss moves the Lions to 0-1 overall on the season while the Royals earn their first victory of the season.
 
How It Happened: The Lions started the first half strong, jumping out a 12-6 lead three minutes into the game. Both teams stayed close to each other in the opening half, with Douglas College tying the game up 18-18 with 13 minutes left on the clock. The Royals took their first lead of the game moments later, with a 3-pointer by Sheldon Derton.
 
Douglas outshot the Lions in the half, hitting just under 63 percent of their shots, compared to MU's 46 percent.
 
The Royals started to pull away from the Lions in the later part of the first half taking an 11-point lead 55-47, with 4:28 left on the clock. From then on it was all Douglas College as they went on a 17-6 run to end the period 72-53.
 
MU nailed eight three-points in the first half alone while shooting 35 percent from behind the arc.
 
Douglas College took their largest lead of the night five minutes into the second period 86-64, a 22-point deficit. Despite the large lead, the Lions started to slowly chip away, bringing it down to an 11-point lead, 93-82, just four minutes later.
 
A late three-point shot by MU's Mikey Chown brought the deficit down to six points but it wasn't enough as the Lions fell 121-115, outscoring the Royals 62-53 in the final half.
 
From the Coach: "We're young and our weakness were exposed out there tonight," said head coach Curt Bickley, "We have a lot of work to do but I like this group and were going to get to work and start fixing it tomorrow."
 
By the Numbers: The Lions totaled 18 3-pointers tonight with five coming from senior guard Blake Updike, who finished the night with a game high 42-points of off 15-for-28 shooting. Five Lions reached double figures tonight with Ben Grandle totaling 16 points, Trever Cooley with 15 points, Mikey Chown with 11 and Ben Grandle with 10 points.
 
Jordan Paris led the way in assists for MU with seven while also tallying a game high 20 rebounds.
 
For the Royals, 16 offensive rebounds gave them the extra shots they needed to secure the win while Kristian Kilderbrandt and Dustin Popoff had 25 and 20 points respectively.
 
Coming Up Next: The Lions will stay at home tomorrow afternoon as they host Quest University at 2 p.m. in on Jim Skagen Court.