Reading, PA — Using a pressuring defense that forced 17 turnovers and yielded just a three for 13 three-point field goal performance from its opponent, the Messiah College women's basketball team gutted its way to a 62-47 win at Alvernia College Thursday night.
The Falcons — ranked ninth in the country in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll — thwarted an early second-half run by the host Crusaders to hold on for its fifth straight win despite making just 24 of 65 shots on the night (36.9 percent), the squad's worst single-game field goal percentage of the season to date.
Messiah (13-1, 0-0) led by a 31-22 score at the half after creating 10 turnovers in the game's first 20 minutes — a stat that helped the Falcons to seven more first-period shots than Alvernia (3-7, 2-0). The hosts clawed back into the mix at the outset of the second half via a nine to nothing run, as Messiah missed its first six shots from the floor en route to a 31-31 score with 15:50 to play.
The law of averages would catch up to Alvernia, however, as an interior basket from sophomore Julie Henninger helped spark a 12 to nothing Falcons' run over the game's next three and a half minutes. Freshman Angie Rapchinski followed Henninger's bucket with a three pointer and then a layup, while another layup from Henninger and a long ball from junior Katie Kalb pushed Messiah ahead 43-31 with 12:12 to play.
Alvernia would cut the difference to six points on two different occasions over the game's next five minutes, but the Falcons would come up with the answers. Leading 47-41 with 7:12 on the clock, Messiah turned to its defense to pull out the victory: The Falcons forced Alvernia into four consecutive turnovers, eventually pulling ahead by a 58-43 score after a Nikki Lobach (senior) layup at the 3:05 mark.
Alvernia would get no closer than 13 points for the remainder of the contest.
Rapchinski spear-headed Messiah's scoring with 14 points on five of 10 shooting, while Lobach charted 12 points while dishing out game-high five assists. Senior Gwen Avery led the Falcons' efforts on the glass with nine rebounds. Rapchinski and junior Silalei Shani each secured six caroms.
Messiah will now sit idle until next Saturday, when the team will host the nation's 12th-ranked team — Kean University — at Brubaker Auditorium. Game time is set for 2 p.m.
