Grantham, PA — It may not have been a duplication of an all-out drubbing from a week and a half ago, but an 82-53 decision over Widener University was good enough to move the Messiah College women's basketball team into the MAC Commonwealth Tournament Championship Wednesday night in Brubaker Auditorium.
After laying a 78-29 walloping on the Pride on Feb. 16, Messiah (24-2, 10-0) used a methodical attack to defeat Widener (11-15, 3-7) by a mere 29 points in the first round of the league tournament Wednesday, never trailing in the game while rattling off the team's 11th consecutive win.
The top-seeded Falcons will now host third seed Lebanon Valley College in the MAC Commonwealth Championship contest Saturday, after Lebanon Valley upset second seed Albright College by a 74-60 score in Wednesday's other semi-final.
“This was a very workmanlike game for us tonight,” said Mike Miller, Messiah head coach. “This is the toughest game for us every year. It's that one-four seed match-up and you just want to get through it. Widener played very, very well and brought a very high level of emotion. We actually exceeded my own expectations tonight. It could have been uglier.”
Ugliness was avoided thanks in large part to Messiah's starting unit outscoring the Pride by a 13-2 count to open the game, as a layup from junior Ashley Brooks began the scoring just a minute into play. The Falcons would lead 8-0 before Widener would get on the board, and when senior Lauren Schurr went on her own hot streak the game was out of hand: Schurr buried three first-half three pointers in the span of just 1:24, turning a 13-4 game into a 24-6 tally with 13:38 remaining in the first period.
Widener would go on to connect on just eight of 29 first-half field goal attempts (27.6 percent), eventually trailing by a 39-20 count at the intermission.
“Our starters were just great and got us off to the start that we needed, especially in this game,” Miller said. “Widener was much more focused than in our last game, and we knew that they would be. But our starters got some steals and deflections, Lauren hit some shots, and that really got us going.”
The Pride improved their shooting efforts in the second half — 10 of 26 from the field, 38.5 percent — maintaining a margin close to the halftime difference for the majority of the final period. A long three pointer from Widener's Megan Sipple pulled the Pride to a 64-45 deficit with just 6:30 to play, and the visitors' bench seemed to sniffed an outside chance at a comeback.
An acrobatic layup — plus a foul — from senior Nikki Lobach on Messiah's next possession quickly halted any notions, however, as the traditional three-point play began a 16 to three Falcons' run over the game's next five minutes. Miller's team led by as many as 32 points — 80-48 with 1:23 to play — but committed three of its 20 total turnovers in the contest's final two and a half minutes en route to the final score.
Lobach led one of Messiah's more balanced efforts of the season offensively, scoring 15 points on a six of nine shooting performance from the floor. Schurr, Reed and Brooks all scored 11 points apiece, while senior Gwen Avery (eight points), junior Silalei Shani (seven) and freshman Angie Rapchinski (seven) weren't far behind.
Rapchinkski collected a game-high eight rebounds, while the squad's 45-27 total advantage on the glass was the second-highest difference of the season. Messiah connected on 50 percent of its 32 total shots, the ninth time the Falcons have shot 50 percent or better while holding their opponent under 35 percent this year.
“We keep looking ahead,” Miller said of what's next. “We'll have a very good LVC team coming to our place Saturday, and I think we'll be ready emotionally.”
Lebanon Valley will visit Brubaker Auditorium for a 2 p.m. tip-off Saturday for the MAC Commonwealth Tournament Championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA National Tournament. Messiah defeated LVC by a 66-42 score at Messiah on Jan. 22 and by a 56-36 score at Lebanon Valley on Feb. 19. The Flying Dutchmen will be making just their second appearance in the MAC Commonwealth Championship game on Saturday and first appearance since the 2001-2002 season.
