Goldey-Beacom almost made a great comeback from down 21 points, but was handed a tough 84-82 loss by Franklin Pierce at the Jones Center in Wilmington, DE.
The Lightning found themselves in a 52-31 hole with 18:37 left before embarking on a furious comeback. The home side before an energetic crowd during the College's Legacy Weekend went on a 36-19 run, moving to 71-67 with 5:26 left.
Freshman Jesiah West (Elizabeth, NJ) netted 12 points in that time for Goldey-Beacom, which shot 13-of-22 from the floor and coerced Franklin Pierce into nine turnovers.
The Ravens built the lead to 80-71 with 3:05 to play, but again the Lightning did not pack it in. GBC went on an 8-2 run in just over a minute to move to 82-79 with 1:52 left, thanks to six points from junior Marcellus Livingston (Linden, NJ).
Following Doyin Fodojutimi's missed jumper for Franklin Pierce, Livingston looked for the tie but his 3-pointer was off. Junior Tyler Jones (Lawrenceville, NJ) got the rebound for the Lightning, but missed a layup and Falu Seck got the rebound for the visitors.
Seck missed a 3-pointer and the Lightning had yet another chance. West went for the quick points and his layup with 25 seconds remaining got his side within 82-81.
Sean Bresnan made one free throw for the Ravens with 20 seconds left and freshman Nazim Derry (Atlantic City, NJ) followed suit for the Lightning with 4.7 seconds remaining for an 83-82 contest. After Derry's miss, Sam van Oostrum hauled in a massive rebound for the Ravens with 2.7 seconds left.
Van Oostrum missed his first free throw and made his second for an 84-82 game. He then stole the inbounds pass, but his toss into the air to kill the clock hit the ceiling with 0.4 seconds left and gave GBC back the ball. But the Lightning's chance for their first lead was not to be as a desperation toss from junior Tevin Service (Union, NJ) was off the mark as time expired.
West poured in 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting with six rebounds, Livingston scored 19 points and Derry added 12 for the Lightning (0-4), who shot 56 percent (19-of-34) from the field in the second half and 49 percent (31-of-63) overall.
Fodojutimi scored 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting with seven rebounds, Seck netted 20, Isaiah Moore poured in 15 and Sean Fasoyiro added 10 and five rebounds for the Ravens (2-1).
Legacy Weekend welcomed back many of the College's proud alums and was tied into an open house, which welcomed many accepted students to the Pike Creek campus.
Goldey-Beacom on Wednesday is at West Chester for a 7:00 pm contest.
