At one point Saturday, Albright's Tom Paul threw a lob pass, from behind the 3-point arc, and it went directly in the basket.

It was Paul's only "shot," and produced his only points.

It was that kind of night for Elizabethtown's basketball team, which fell to the Lions, 72-58, in a Commonwealth Conference game at Thompson Gym.

"They're pretty athletic, and they can take you out of your stuff," E-town coach Bob Schlosser said at the end of what had been a trying evening.

E-town (8-12, 4-6 Commonwealth) is a program that isn't used to losing. It will have to win its final four games to avoid its fourth sub-.500 season in Schlosser's 22 years.

"I think it was more them and not us," Schlosser said of Albright (13-8, 4-6), which was fresh off an impressive 15-point win at 17-4 Lycoming Wednesday.

"They've got it going right now. They're a different team than they were even a couple weeks ago."

The Blue Jays lost to the "old," Albright, 68-55 in Reading Jan. 14.

This E-town edition figured to struggle a bit to score, especially after 6-5 senior Brian Allport was lost for the season with a knee ligament tear. But Schlosser has traditionally been able to leaven that issue by playing 10 to 12 people, coming at opponents in droves with full-court pressure defense, and wearing teams down and out.

That doesn't work now, Schlosser said, "because of our lack of athleticism. That's an easy answer."

Unluckily, the Jays are having a transitional year, with only two seniors and nine freshmen and sophomores, when the rest of the Commonwealth is bigger and quicker than usual.

"Alvernia, Albright, Lycoming, even Arcadia, are all very athletic," Schlosser said.

So the Blue Jays had to just hope to grind away at it Saturday. That worked OK for a while, thanks largely to Joe Schwalm's 16 first-half points on 7-of-9 shooting.

Even though Albright shot 14 of 26 in the half, it led at the break by just six points, 35-29.

But the Lions started the second half with a 14-4 run. Schlosser went to multiple presses after that, meaning Schwalm got only 10 second-half minutes.

"I was concentrating defensively there," Schlosser said. "That's not [Schwalm's] forte."

Albright pushed the lead to 21, on Paul's lob-pass triple, with 11 minutes left.

The Jays kept fighting, and got within 13 a couple times, but never seriously threatened.

A couple of box-score numbers glare. Albright shot 60 percent from the field (31 of 52), 65 percent (17 of 26) in the second half. Points in the paint were Albright 46, E-town 22.

The Jays made just nine of 30 second-half shots.

Albright got 16 points from Kyle Jordan, 15 and 12 rebounds from 6-11 Derek Hall, and 14 from Pedro Gomez. Those three sank a combined 20 of 31.

Schwalm finished with 20, on 8-of-11 shooting, but E-town had no other double-figure scorers.

"I'm not worried," Schlosser said, about the possibility of hanging heads and spirits. "We just have to grow. And we are."

The Jays travel to Lebanon Valley Wednesday. Game time is 8 p.m.

Contact Sunday News Assistant Sports Editor Mike Gross at mgross@lnpnews.com.