HUNTINGDON, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's basketball team opened its 2013-14 Landmark Conference season with a 66-50 loss at Juniata College Saturday afternoon.

Senior center Blake English led the Greyhounds with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor including a pair of three-pointers and four-of-five at the foul line. Sophomore guard Jarrod Dilts added eight points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds for Moravian while sophomore guard Izel Dickerson had six points, 12.5 under his team-leading season average, all from the foul line in the second half. Senior forward Cameron Cullen added five points and five boards for the Greyhounds while freshman forward Brandon McGuire had four points and four rebounds.

"Juniata did a good job of overplaying Izel in the offense, especially when he made cuts, and that frustrated him," stated Head Coach Jim Walker. "They did that to all of our guys on the offensive end, and we just didn't make the shots we had in the second half to keep it close as we did in the first half."

The Eagles had four players in double figures and were led by senior forward Brian Scholly, who tossed in 17 points to go with four rebounds. Senior guard Kevin Stapleton had 14 points and seven boards while senior guard Jeremy Hays had a double-double with 12 points and 11 assists to go with seven rebounds. Senior forward Lucas Mellott also tossed in 12 points, and he grabbed eight boards.

Juniata scored the first six points of the game before English hit a jumper at the 16:29 mark to get the Greyhounds on the scoreboard. The Eagles pushed their lead to 10 points, 17-7, on a three-pointer from Kevin Stapleton with 12:30 left in the first half. Moravian scored with next six points to pull within 17-13 on a three-pointer by junior forward Garrett Kashmer with 9:56 before the intermission. Kashmer finished with five points.

Juniata pushed the lead back to 10 points, 27-17, on a pair of free throws by Hays with 3:28 on the clock. The Greyhounds answered again by scoring the game's next eight points to pull within a basket, 27-25, after a three-point play by English on a lay-up off of a steal and a free throw with 57 seconds left in the first half.

The Eagles headed to the locker room with a 29-25 lead after shooting 11-for-21 from the floor and 6-for-6 at the foul line in the first 20 minutes of action. Juniata also had a 14-12 edge in rebounds. The Greyhounds connected on 9-of-26 field goal attempts, 3-of-10 three-pointers and 4-of-6 free throws in the first half.

"I thought we did a great job late in the first half to close the gap at halftime," Walker said. "Unfortunately, we were unable to carry the momentum over into the second half."

Moravian kept it close early in the second half, trailing by just three points, 33-30, on a lay-up by English at the 17:54 mark. Juniata started to pull away and pushed its lead back into double digits, 44-34, on a three-pointer by Kyle Koehler at 13:58. The Eagles then made their lead 20 points, 55-35, on a three-pointer by Scholly with 8:23 left in the contest.

The Greyhounds will return to action on Tuesday, December 10 in a non-conference game at Rutgers-Newark tipping off at 7:00 p.m.