ALLIANCE, Ohio -- As Northeast Ohio recovers from a two-day arctic blast outside, the Mount Union men's basketball team went cold inside as the Purple Raiders scored a season-low 17 first half points in a 69-62 Ohio Athletic Conference loss to Muskingum Thursday night in Alliance.

Mount Union drops its fourth game in a row and falls to 8-12 overall and 6-7 in the OAC, while Muskingum snaps a seven-game losing streak and moves to 7-13 overall and 3-10 in the OAC.

The Purple Raiders made just 6-of-25 (24-percent) shots in the first half and found themselves in an eight-point hole, 25-17 at the half.

Muskingum held a 12 point lead, 44-32 with 10:33 to play when Mount Union scored nine-straight points to get back to within three, 44-41 with eight minutes left.

The Muskies then scored six of the next eight points on a pair of Carson Thomas three-pointers to push lead back out to seven points, 50-43 and never looked back.

Thomas had 13 of his game-high 18 points in the second half and was joined in double figures by Kyle Clinedinst with 12.

Jimmy Wood (Wintersville/Indian Creek) had a game-high 18 points for Mount Union, while Dave Pellerite (Olmsted Falls/Olmsted Falls) had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.  Ben Hodkinson (Tippecanoe/Harrison Central) rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Raiders with 10 points.

Mount Union stays home to take on Wilmington in an OAC matchup Saturday at 4 pm at The MAAC.