D.J. Bridges (above) scored a career best 36 points in MU's loss to Cornerstone.

LIVONIA, Mich. – D.J. Bridges led all players with a career best 36 points, but it was not enough to hold off a Cornerstone second half comeback in an 80-76 loss for Madonna inside the Activities Center on Saturday. With the loss MU fell to 15-12, 7-4 in conference play while MU improved to 13-13 overall and 7-3 in the WHAC. The loss also knocked Madonna in to third place in the league standings.

The Crusaders came out and opened the game on a 14-2 run over the first three minutes using triples from Keith Hearns (Livonia, Mich.) and Bridges to build out as much as a 14 point lead in the early going.

Madonna saw the lead slip to nine with 12:37 on a Scott Soldan layup, but quickly pushed the lead back to double digits on another Bridges score and then took the lead up to 15 on a Bridges three with 8:58 showing on the clock. MU maintained  its double-digit lead the rest of the half, taking a 47-37 lead into the locker room.

Coming out of the intermission the Golden Eagles cut the lead down to four with 17:38 as Ted Albert converted the old fashioned three-point play, making his free throw after being fouled to make it 49-45 MU. Madonna built the lead back to 11 on a Charlie Henry (Canton, Mich.) three with 16:47 left in the game.

Cornerstone then chipped away at the lead, ultimately tying the game at 66-66 with 6:50 left. That tie was short lived as Jon Battle (Cleveland, Ohio) gave Madonna the lead back at 68-66 on a driving lay-in with 6:30 left that seemed to spark Madonna and extend the lead to five with 4:08 left on a Mike Rashad (Inkster, Mich.) put-back to make it 72-67.

The Golden Eagles then used two Kelvin DeVries layups to go along with a triple to tie the game at 76-all with 1:56 left in the game. CU then took its first lead of the game on a Matt Kingshott jumper in the lane with 1:23 left and another Kingshott score with nine ticks left sealed the win at 80-76 for the Golden Eagles.

CU won the battle in the paint, outscoring MU 46-20 and used a 32-4 bench scoring edge to earn the WHAC win.

Bridges dropped in his 36 and MU got 12 each from Hearns and Henry. Kingshott led CU with 24 points.

Madonna - losers of two of its last three games - looks to get back  on the winning track when it travels to Siena Heights on Wednesday night in a 7:30 tipoff.