MEADVILLE, Pa. -- Despite a red-hot start and early success from 3-point range, the Allegheny College men's basketball team suffered an 81-71 loss to Westminster College on Wednesday in the final home game of the 2024-25 campaign.

It was a tale of two halves for the Gators (8-16, 6-13 PAC) and Titans (8-16, 5-14 PAC). Allegheny led by as many as 16 points in the first half and entered the locker room at the intermission up by five, 36-31.

Led by third-year guard Isaiah Portis (Medina, Ohio/Norwayne), the Gators shot well from 3-point range. Portis made four of Allegheny's first five field goals from distance. Devon Lewis (Fort Wayne, Ind./Canterbury School), Ryan Lang (Sarver, Pa./Knoch), and James Sitter (Erie, Pa./Fairview) joined the aerial assault as well, with Sitter's trey extending the advantage to 27-11 with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first.

Senior guard Luke Barker (New Castle, Pa./Struthers (Ohio)) rekindled the shooting spree early in the second half with a pair of 3-pointers, the latter putting the Gators ahead by nine at 44-35. But Westminster began piecing together its comeback over the next six minutes and used a 10-0 run to grab its first lead of the night at 45-44.

As the two sides went back and forth, the Gators and Titans played to five different tied scores, the last of which evened the contest at 59-all following a Barker 3-pointer with just over seven minutes to play. Westminster's Mick Hergenrother responded by netting six unanswered points with a pair of buckets from beyond the arc, and it proved to be a lead the Titans would never surrender.

Costly turnovers and untimely fouls prevented the Gators from reducing the deficit to a single possession in the last five minutes, and the Titans made good on all of their foul shots in the final two minutes to preserve the win.

Inside the Box Score

• The Gators led 36-31 at halftime, but Westminster outscored Allegheny 50-35 in the second half.
• Allegheny shot 50.0% from the field in the first half (12-of-24), but Westminster outdid the Gators with a 56.3 field-goal percentage (18-of-32) in the second half.
• Allegheny finished with 14 3-pointers on 34 attempts for a rate of 41.2%.
• Westminster, which logged 12 steals, turned Allegheny's 18 turnovers into 20 points.
• Barker led all scorers with 23 points while adding four rebounds, four assists, one steal, and one block.
• Portis made a game-high five 3-pointers and finished with 18 points.
• Lang had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
• Hergenrother and Drew Weir paced the Titans with 17 points apiece.

News and Notes

• Allegheny and Westminster split their two-game series in 2024-25.
• The Gators made a season-high 14 3-pointers against the Titans, the most in a game since making 14 against Penn State Shenango on December 20, 2023.
• Portis' five treys tied his single-game career-high, matching the five he made against Waynesburg University as a freshman on January 14, 2023.
• Lang earned his second double-double of the year after tying his career-high with 12 rebounds.
• Barker became only the fifth player in program history to reach 1,400 career points and is 30 points shy of tying David Masciola '96 (1,443) for fourth place.

Up Next
The 2024-25 season concludes with a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) matchup at Bethany College on Saturday, February 22, at 3:00 p.m.