Grantham, PA – A second-half scoring drought thwarted the Messiah College men's basketball team's efforts for a tournament championship this weekend, as the Falcons dropped a 76-66 decision to former Commonwealth Conference foe Juniata College in Saturday's Falcon Alumni Hampton Inn Tournament Championship contest.
Messiah (4-3, 0-0) dealt Penn State University-Harrisburg a 93-52 defeat in Friday evening's second semi-final contest to advance to Saturday's championship, but a futile start to the second half doomed the Falcons against Juniata. After trailing the Eagles by a 32-31 score at halftime, Messiah could only score six points in the first 14 minutes of the second half, eventually falling behind by as many as 16 points before closing the gap.
“I felt that we played well in spurts throughout the weekend, but there were times where we had a lot of trouble putting points on the board,” said Messiah head coach Rick Van Pelt. “It was a good tournament in that we learned some things about ourselves that we need to change in order to become a more complete team at both ends of the floor.”
Messiah had little trouble dispatching Penn State-Harrisburg (2-7, 0-0) in Friday's second semi-final game, as the Falcons jumped out to a 20-6 lead and never looked back. Messiah made a season-high 11 three pointers and connected on 53 percent of its total field goals in the win, with the final 41-point margin equaling the largest difference of the game.
Van Pelt's squad placed a season-high five players in double-figure scoring in the victory, led by sophomore Josh Curtin's career-high 16 points and 14 rebounds. Senior John Boyd and sophomore Andy Hawk each provided 14 points, while sophomore Ryan Nichols and freshman Jamie Yoder added 11 and 10, respectively.
Eventual tournament champion Juniata (5-3, 0-0) was fortunate just to make it to Saturday's title contest, as the Eagles needed a buzzer-beating, 30-foot three pointer from Jeff Berkey to edge past Manhattanville College by an 88-85 score in Friday's first semi-final. Once in the championship, however, the Eagles used a suffocating defense to decide the outcome early in the second half: After Messiah connected on 50 percent of its first-half field goals (12 of 24), the Falcons opened the second period by making just three of its first 17 shots from the floor (17.6 percent) coupled with four turnovers.
That stretch – which netted just six Falcon points while occupying the first 14 minutes of the second half – was eventually ended by a made jumper from Yoder with 5:59 to play. The damage was done, however, as Juniata scored 16 points during that time to open up a 48-37 lead.
With Messiah forced to foul down the stretch, Juniata was efficient from the free throw line, going 13 for 16 in the final three minutes to keep the lead more than comfortable. The Eagles eventually made 18 of 21 charity tosses (85.7 percent) compared to Messiah's eight for nine performance (88.9 percent), the prominent difference statistically.
Even with the Falcons' offensive hardships in the second period, the team went on to shoot a respectable 48.1 percent from the field (25 of 52) while holding Juniata to a 43.6 shooting clip (24 of 55).
“Juniata has a very solid nucleus of four seniors who were big contributors in their run to a second-place finish in our league last year,” Van Pelt said. “They certainly shoot the ball very well and are physical on the defensive end to make every possession a battle. They had a great tournament and deserved the championship.”
Van Pelt's team was led in scoring by senior Darryl Brown, who finished with 18 points on a six of 12 effort from the field. Curtin added 12 points and a game-high seven rebounds, all while playing just 10 minutes of the second half. Yoder and junior Drew Sneeringer each added nine points in the loss.
“I thought we had some very solid individual performances from a couple of our big guys as well as from our guards,” Van Pelt said. “We just did not have enough variety in (Saturday's championship) game to keep Juniata off balance. We were too one dimensional.”
Manhattanville (7-3, 0-0) defeated Penn-State Harrisburg by a 94-70 score in Saturday's consolation game. Juniata's Brian Cannon was named tournament most valuable player after averaging 22.5 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game during the weekend. Teammate Kyle Opitz joined Cannon on the all-tourney squad, while Messiah's Miller and Curtin were also selected. Manhattanville's Cody Moffett and Penn State-Harrisburg's Abe Hitz rounded out the all-tournament team.
The Falcons must now sit on the defeat until after Christmas, as the team is idle until the weekend of Dec. 28-29, when Messiah will travel to the York College White Rose City Classic. Messiah will open play against William Patterson University Friday night. Game time is set for 8 p.m.
