Falcons Drop See Saw Affair.

The Notre Dame Falcons woes in conference play continued Saturday at Murphy Gym as they dropped their third straight overall and second straight in the league 79-72 vs the Houghton Highlanders. It was a familiar story for the "blue and white" as they were out scored 40-31 in the second half.

Houghton improved to 6-12 and got there first win in the AMC. A pair of Highlanders tallied double numbers. Ryan Shay led the way with 25 points on 9 of 18 shooting. Mike Munoz added a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Highlanders shot 47% from the field and were 7-22 from long range. Houghton was a solid 18-22 (82%) at the charity stripe. The Highlanders also had 12 assists to go with 12 turnovers as a team.

NDC dropped to 7-13 (2-6 AMC) . The Falcons were led by Eric Dummermuth with 25 points and 15 rebounds. Dummermuth was 7-13 from the floor and 11-13 at the foul line. Taylor Reiger added 14 points on 6 of 16 shooting. Victor Pappas provided a spark for the Falcons off the bench as he had 3 points, 2 assists and a steal in 9 minutes.

The game saw 9 lead changes and 8 ties. The game started with the two teams playing evenly for the first 8 minutes. The Falcons would take a brief one point lead at 18-17 on a Phil Biggs triple with 10:55 in the opening half. The Highalnders would respond with 5-0 run to go up by four. With 3:30 minutes in the opening half the Highlanders would lead 33-29. Pappas would enter the game and spark a 6-0 Falcon run as a Pappas layup would give NDC a 35-33 lead with 2:51 in the half. The Falcons would hold a 41-39 lead heading into the intermission.

The two teams would trade a pair of leads to start the second half and a Dummermuth jumper would give NDC a 45-42 lead with 17:35 to go. The Falcons would stretch that lead out to 9 on a Reiger three with 13:36 to go. The Highlanders would fight back and take a 63-58 lead after a 21-6 run for the Highlanders with 6:44 to play. The Falcons would get the lead down to 1 at 73-72 with 30 seconds to go on a Reiger trey. Rodney Mickens would miss a trey with 16 seconds and the Highlanders would make six free throws down the stretch to ice it.

The Falcons will hit the road as they will get a rematch with the Highlanders on Tuesday. Tip time at Houghton is set for 7 PM.