BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – The Lafayette men's basketball team put together a furious comeback effort on Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., but it fell just short in the end for the Leopards' first loss of the 2019-20 campaign, a 73-72 defeat to St. Francis Brooklyn.
 
Lafayette closed both halves of the game strong, leading 37-32 into the halftime intermission and finishing the game on a 16-6 comeback surge. The Leopards had the tying point at the foul line with 2.5 seconds remaining, but, after two makes, junior E.J. Stephens couldn't get the ball up over the rim on the third and the put-back effort wouldn't go.
 
The free-throw miss was one of the few dark spots on an otherwise excellent outing from Stephens, who came one shy of his career-high with 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 from the foul line. Stephens dished out four assists and tied his career-best with three steals on the defensive end.
 
Despite a tough shooting night from beyond the arc, classmate Justin Jaworski found a way to score inside the circle, tying for the team-high with 19 points on 9-of-17 shooting on the day. Jaworski went 1-of-6 from three-point range to move his streak of consecutive games with a three-point field goal to an even 50, the second-longest streak in the nation.
 
The other shining Leopard was senior Myles Cherry, who registered his fourth-career double-double and second in as many games this season. Cherry scored 14 points on 5-of-6 from the floor and ripped down 12 rebounds with a team-high +14.
 
On the other side, Chauncey Hawkins knocked down 10-of-10 from the foul line on his way to 24 points to lead all scorers for the Terriers. Deniz Celen chipped in with 16 as the only other player for the home side with more than seven points.
 
The Leopard offense took its time to settle in as the St. Francis owned the opening few minutes with a 9-2 lead after five and a 16-7 advantage at the 11-minute mark. The Leopards found it midway through the half, though, as an 11-2 run capped off by a Cherry post bucket in the lane at the 8:05 mark tied it at 18-18.
 
St. Francis moved its lead back to five, but three straight buckets from Jaworski put Lafayette in front for the first time at 5:39, 24-23. The Terriers again went up four at the 2:37 mark, but the Leopards closed with all the momentum, scoring 10 of the final 11 points on threes from seniors Kyle Stout and Lukas Jarrett to take a five-point lead, their largest of the half, into the break.
 
Sophomore Tyrone Perry's three opened the second half to balloon the lead to eight, 40-32, but six straight back from the Terriers took the game under the 16-minute mark within a bucket, 40-38. The Terriers continued to move, regaining the lead on back-to-back buckets from Hawkins and extending the advantage to as many as six before Cherry and sophomore Isaac Suffren buckets made it 48-46 with 11:37 left.
 
The home side stemmed the tide, moving their edge back out to seven on an acrobatic layup from Hawkins with eight minutes remaining. That lead held until Cherry's layup at 4:15 that sparked the comeback.
 
The Leopards will look to get right back over the .500 mark in their next contest on Wednesday, traveling to Princeton for a clash with the Tigers at 7 p.m.