Grantham, PA — Coming into Tuesday night's MAC Commonwealth Conference season-opener for both Messiah College and Lebanon Valley College, it was clear that one way or another, a streak was going to end.
Sadly for the visitors, the game was played in Brubaker Auditorium.
Messiah — ranked 12th in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll and 11th in the most recent D3hoops.com ballot — ran its regular-season conference home winning streak to an incredible 36 games with a 66-42 decision over Lebanon Valley Tuesday night, handing the Flying Dutchmen their first loss of the year in the process. Lebanon Valley was held to just 15 first-half points en route to scoring 28.9 points under its season-average, as the Falcons continued their absolute dominance at home in league contests.
Not that head coach Mike Miller was impressed.
“To be honest, we have to play better,” Miller said after watching his team stumble to 25 turnovers, 16 of which came during the first half. “We have to take care of the ball better, make better decisions under pressure and defend better. I'm not being greedy. It's simply a matter of knowing ourselves and what we expect from ourselves. We'll get back to work at practice immediately, I can assure you.”
Messiah (14-2, 1-0) was able to overcome its first-half ball handling issues thanks in large part to a 15 of 23 shooting performance from the field (65.2 percent), forcing Lebanon Valley (14-1, 0-1) into a remarkable 19 first-half giveaways.
Utilizing a small, quick lineup comprised primarily of underclassmen, Lebanon Valley was able to get up and under the Falcons defensively, forcing Miller's team into its second-highest turnover tally of the year.
“It was not a pleasant halftime speech,” Miller said.
Still, the Falcons were never threatened, even as the team's shooting cooled in the second half (12 of 27, 44.4 percent) and Lebanon Valley's production increased (12 of 32, 37.5 percent). Messiah led by as many as 20 points in the first period before settling on a 33-15 lead at the break, while a seven to nothing run to open the second half pushed the spread to 41-15.
Miller's team would lead by as many as 28 points on a pair of occasions in the game's final 10 minutes, while Lebanon Valley would get no closer than 21 points at any moment in the final period.
Senior Nikki Lobach was the high-point getter for Messiah, notching 16 points on a seven for 12 shooting performance. She scored 14 of those points in the first half. Classmate Gwen Avery and junior Silalei Shani each scored eight points, while Avery and junior Ashley Brooks pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
The Falcons finished with a monstrous 40 to 20 advantage in total rebounds, outboarding the visitors by a 15 to eight count under the offensive glass.
“Honestly, our starting group played very, very well in the first five minutes or so in the start to the second half,” Miller said. “We were able to make good decisions with the ball and we defended well. But outside of that, we need to play much better.”
Lebanon Valley was looking to repeat a bit of history prior to the contest, as Messiah's last regular-season home conference defeat came to the Flying Dutchmen way back on Feb. 16, 2002. Lebanon Valley hit a three pointer at the buzzer of that contest to escape Brubaker with a 50-47 decision. Since that time, Messiah has won 39 straight home conference affairs while posting an overall home record of 78-10.
The Falcons will take their game to the road next, however, as the team will travel to rival Elizabethtown for another league game Saturday. Game time is set for 2 p.m. in Thompson Gym.
