MEADVILLE, Pa. – Conor Macomber scored a career-high 18 points, while teammate Evan Zabriski posted his eighth career double-double, but the Gators were edged 67-64 by visiting Juniata in a back-and-forth battle at the David V. Wise Center.

The loss drops the Gators to 0-2 on the season, while Juniata now opens the season 1-0.

The game saw five ties and four lead changes over the final 13 minutes of regulation, before the visiting Eagles ended the game on a 9-5 run, fueled by five free throws over the final 40 seconds.

Macomber, who went 6-for-10 from the field, 4-for-7 from distance, and 2-for-3 from the foul line, led a balanced Gator scoring contingent, as five players scored six or more points.  Zabriski scored 15 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, while Brandon Smith bucketed eight points, Chris Milon seven, and Evan Schweitzer six. 

Four days after going 0-for-14 from behind the arc in their season-opener against Thiel, the Gators nailed two from downtown in the first two minutes of play, both by Macomber, to open the game on an 8-2 run.  The tide quickly turned, as the Eagles nailed a pair of threes of their own, while holding the Gators without a field goal for nearly four minutes, to embark on a 13-1 run and go in front 15-9 with 12:52 left in the half.

The Gators chipped away at the deficit, with four straight points from Milon cutting the deficit to 15-13, before two threes from Zabriski and one by Schweitzer tied the game at 22 with eight minutes left until the break. 

Over the final minutes of the half, the Eagles threatened to pull away, upping their lead to five on three separate occasions.  The Gators would answer back each time, and ended the half with a pair of Isaiah Henderson free throws to trail just 34-31 at intermission.

The Gators charged out of the locker room to regain the momentum in the opening three minutes of the second half.  Buckets by Smith on back-to-back possessions, followed by a pair of Brian Holland free throws, allowed the hosts to re-gain the lead, 37-36, with 17:20 left in regulation.  The Gator advantage would hover between two and three points over the next several moments, before Macomber's third trey of the evening put the Gators up 45-41 with 12 minutes left in regulation.

The back-and-forth theme continued, as the Eagles chipped away to eventually jump in front 53-49 with a three-pointer at the eight-minute mark.  Macomber answered with his third trey to cut the deficit to one, before freshman Billy Urso connected on a long three for his first collegiate points to tie the game at 55 with 6:40 to go.

The teams traded points over the next two minutes, before the Eagles scored four straight points to go up 62-58 with 2:40 left.  The Juniata lead remained at four entering the final minute, before Macomber converted on a traditional three-point play to pull the Gators to within one, 64-63, with 27 seconds left. 

The Gators were then forced to foul on the ensuing possession, and the Eagles made just the front end of the double-bonus to take a two-point lead with 23 seconds left.  Running the clock down on what would be their final possession of the game, a Gator three-point attempt went wide of the mark, and the Eagles closed out the game with two free throws with three seconds left to seal the win.

Juniata was led by Marcus Lee, who scored 14 points, while Brandon Martinazzi scored 11 and Justin Fleming 10.  Trevor Clune paced the Eagles on the glass with seven rebounds, as Juniata finished with a 33-28 edge in rebounding.

Allegheny will return to action on Friday, hosting Adrian at 6 p.m. on the opening night of the Greg Richards '08 Memorial Tip-Off Tournament at the Wise Center.  The Gators will play the third game of the day, which opens with a 2 p.m. men's tilt between Case Western Reserve and Fredonia, followed by a 4 p.m. game between the Carnegie Mellon and Muskingum women. 

The tournament is held in honor of Greg Richards, a 2008 Allegheny graduate and four-year basketball letterwinner who was lost to cancer in 2012.