RADNOR, Pa.—The Keystone College men's basketball team was involved in another nail-biter, only this time the Giants came up a tad short on the scoreboard.

Just three days after squeezing out a 77-76 victory over Cairn University Wednesday, the Giants dropped a hard-fought 98-96 decision to Cabrini University in Colonial States Athletic Conference action Saturday afternoon at Nerney Field House.

The loss was the Giants first in conference play and drops them to 5-6 overall and 4-1 in the CSAC, while the Cavaliers improved to 9-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play.  Keystone, Cabrini, Gwynedd-Mercy and Neumann are now all tied for first-place.

Keystone put together one of its most impressive offensive outings of the season, with six players scoring in double figures, led by junior guard JT Bennett (Kansas City, Kan./Washington) with 17 points. Sophomore guards Perry Belcher (Orlando, Fla./Colonial) and Austin Smith (Titusville, Fla./Florida Air Academy) and senior forward Bryan Williams (Los Angeles, Calif./Rialto) and freshman guard Jaylen Nuckles (Corning, N.Y./Corning) contributed 12 apiece and sophomore center John Kirkpatrick (Philadelphia, Pa./Northeast) finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.

Cabrini, likewise, had six players score in double figures, led by sophomore guard Keith Blassingale with 25 points and senior forward Tyheim Monroe finished with 16 points and 21 rebounds.

Late in the second half, the Giants erased a nine-point deficit with a 12-2 run to take a 91-90 lead with 3:09 remaining.  The Cavaliers regained the lead on a 3-pointer by Monroe and a lay-up by senior forward Deryl Bagwell before Williams converted back-to-back lay-ups to tie it at 95-95 with 35 seconds remaining. 

Monroe hit another clutch 3-pointer with nine seconds left to give the Cavaliers the lead for good, 98-95, before Giant senior guard Mark Gilliam (Philadelphia, Pa./High School of the Future) hit one of two free throws with three seconds left to set the final score.  Keystone shot over 53 percent from the field in the second half to finish nearly 47 percent for the game.  The Giants also made 13 3-pointers.

The game featured 11 ties and 20 lead changes.

The Giants return to action this Tuesday, January 9, against Marywood University in CSAC action at the Insalaco Arena in Scranton, Pennsylvania, beginning at 8:00 p.m.