ACPHS Men's Basketball staged a heroic comeback attempt on Wednesday, but it was not enough as they fell to the Fisher College Falcons by a score of 81-70. The Panthers have now lost five straight games and sport a 6-11 overall record.

The Falcons came to Albany on a mission in the opening ten minutes, racing out to a 30-6 lead thanks to some good old-fashion shooting. Albany actually took the lead after a three-pointer from senior forward Evan Georgio at the 18:37 mark, but Fisher put the clamps down defensively and ripped off 16 straight points from then on.

ACPHS was able to stabilize after the early shock, going bucket-for-bucket until they put together a 10-0 run of their own to close out the half. Led by some timely defensive plays and a few fastbreak points from senior forward Edward Ahanmisi, ACPHS established a platform to get back in the game.

Ahanmisi again led the charge for the Panthers coming out of the break, hitting a three and fastbreak layup that forced Fisher to call timeout up 49-38 with 15:20 to go. After that timeout, Ahanmisi and his fellow senior Naythan Beltran hit threes on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead all the way down to five. Both of those buckets were assisted by Evan Georgio.

This is the closest Albany could bring it back to though, as the Falcons immediately went on a 12-2 run that would end up being all the cushion they needed to see out the game. Beltran and Ahanmisi did hit some big shots down the stretch to keep Fisher in reach, but the Panthers struggled to capitalize on that hot shooting with stops on the other end. Head coach Brett Barnard will be disappointed that his team put themselves in such an early hole as they really did outplay the Falcons for the better part of 25 minutes in the game.

Ahanmisi led all scorers with 20 points, adding five rebounds and four assists to an already stellar performance. Beltran was right behind with 19 points which included five made threes. Senior guard John Ambert also stuffed the stat sheet, finishing with five points, eight assists, five rebounds, two steals and a block.

Three players finished in double-figures for the Falcons, with Darnell White leading the way with 17. 17 Fisher players saw at least one minute of action in this one, with every single one recording at least one statistic. The key to victory for Fisher was their dominance on the glass, as they out-rebounded ACPHS 49-33 and turned their 21 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.

Albany will once again look to get back to winning ways this Saturday, January 25th when they travel to Bryant & Stratton-Rochester.