Grantham, PA — Serving as a final tune up before MAC Commonwealth Conference play, the Messiah College men's basketball team handed Lancaster Bible College an 87-73 defeat Saturday at Brubaker Auditorium, the Falcons' sixth consecutive win.
Perhaps expected to win on paper — Lancaster Bible entered the game winless in 13 attempts — Messiah (11-4, 0-0) found itself up against an opponent whose abilities and scrappiness belied its overall record, a trait that lingered with Falcons' head coach Rick Van Pelt both during the game and afterward.
“We did not play our best basketball today, but give credit to LBC,” Van Pelt said. “They made plays, they were aggressive and they attacked. They were well-coached coming in. We had a size advantage, and really that could have come down to the difference in the game.
“It's very hard to go the entire season and play your best. We were fortunate to not play our best today and still come away with a win.”
Van Pelt's team trailed for just a bit over two minutes in the game, a stretch that occurred at the outset. Lancaster Bible (0-14, N/A) scored the first four points of the contest, but a 14 -2 Falcons' run over the game's next three minutes opened up a 14-6 lead.
Following a brief Chargers' push that pulled the visitors within a 20-18 difference with 11:23 to play in the first half, consecutive buckets from senior Darryl Brown, junior Jason Miller, sophomore Kyle Snyder and sophomore Ryan Nicholas rebuilt the Falcons' advantage to 28-18 just two minutes later.
Messiah would take a 46-33 lead at halftime, connecting on 16 of 32 shots from the field (50 percent).
“I think there were some things that were positives for us today, and I thought that we battled and sometimes executed well on offense,” Van Pelt said. “But we just really struggled to defend, and that was disappointing.”
Lancaster Bible would go on to shoot at a 53.8 percent clip from the floor overall, making 28 of 52 total shots. Those numbers equated to the second-highest field goal percentage allowed by Messiah this season, bettered only by Gettysburg College's 59.1 percent clip in an 81-67 defeat of the Falcons on Nov. 17.
Despite Messiah's departure from the norm defensively, Van Pelt's squad would not allow Lancaster Bible to get close. Back-to-back threes from sophomore Andy Hawk and senior Jonathan Boyd pushed the Falcons to a 52-35 lead just moments into the second period, while the Chargers would find themselves down by as many as 22 points with eight minutes to play.
Lancaster Bible would cut the lead to 12 points on two occasions over the game's final three and a half minutes, but Van Pelt's reserves executed well enough to cruise to the win. Messiah connected on 31 of 60 total shots on the afternoon (51.7 percent), while outrebounding LBC by a 33 to 27 margin.
Miller led the scoring output for the Falcons, charting a season-high 17 points in going four of nine from the floor. Hawk and Brown each scored 15, with Hawk grabbing a team-leading 10 boards. Snyder finished with 13 points, giving Messiah four double-figure scorers for the first time this season.
Van Pelt's squad did force a season-high 26 turnovers in the win, while the program leader was quick to dismiss any talk of this being a “trap game” given the conference opener looming just days away.
“That feels like an excuse,” Van Pelt said. “I thought offensively we played okay, although 22 turnovers is way too many. We have to be better defensively if we want to win in the league, but we know that. We're glad to get a win, but we know we have to get better.”
Messiah was without junior guard Drew Sneeringer for the second time this season, as the red-hot shooting guard suffered a sprained ankle in the team's morning practice. Messiah athletic training personnel said that Sneeringer is unlikely to play for at least a week and maybe longer. Additional analysis will be conducted Monday, officials said.
With or without Sneeringer in uniform, Messiah will open league play Tuesday when the team hosts Lebanon Valley College. Game time is set for 8 p.m.
