Reading, PA — Playing in a hostile environment and against an opponent seething to knock the Messiah College women's basketball team off its recent throne, the Falcons hung on to hand host Albright College a 65-52 defeat in MAC Commonwealth Conference play Wednesday night, taking sole possession of the league's top spot in the process.
Messiah (18-2, 5-0) shook off early foul problems and a hot start from Albright (16-4, 4-1) to outscore the Lions by a 41-30 count in the second period, turning a narrow 24-22 halftime lead into the type of victory that had head coach Mike Miller beaming.
“This was an absolutely great win,” Miller said immediately following the game. “Albright was everything we thought they would be, and it's going to be an absolute battle when they come to our place (on Feb. 23). It was a great environment, a great crowd and Albright's student section really tried to intimidate us. We responded and handled it very well, and I'm really pleased with our effort.”
As both Messiah and Albright entered the game with identical 4-0 conference marks, it was the host Lions who shot out of the gate with a surge, making four of their first five shots from the floor to jump out to a 10-2 lead.
A deep — make that extremely deep — three pointer from senior Lauren Schurr quieted the Bollman Center crowd and began a 12 to two Messiah run, as a layup from junior Katie Kalb made the score 14-12, Falcons, with 14:52 to play in the half.
Albright would grab a brief, one-point lead just a minute later, but a layup from sophomore Julie Henninger would give the Falcons a 16-15 advantage with 12:35 on the clock.
Messiah was able to maintain a small lead despite seniors Nikki Lobach and Gwen Avery saddled with two fouls apiece, as well as committing 11 first-half turnovers.
“Albright came out and shot the ball extremely well and jumped on us with that 10-2 lead,” Miller said. “When Lauren hit that 25-footer, I thought it calmed us. We responded well from that point and were able to get through the first half.”
After scoring just six points in the first period, Lobach would make sure Messiah would not just “get through” the second.
The All-American scored 18 second-half points to open up what literally was a flawless latter 20 minutes for the Falcons, as Messiah did not turn the ball over following the intermission. After Albright connected on one of two free throws to begin the second period, senior Amy Reed buried a three to make the score 27-23, Messiah. Seven straight points from Lobach kept the spread at 34-28 with 14:25 to play, while a traditional three-point play from Lobach put Messiah ahead 43-33 just four minutes later.
Albright would close the gap to five points at the game's 7:42 mark, but another timely three-ball from Schurr pushed Messiah's lead back to 51-43, and the Lions would not get within double-figures throughout the contest's final 5:05.
“The big news of the night was having not one turnover in the second half of play,” Miller said. “Because I've been lamenting about taking care of the basketball recently, that was a very, very big thing for us. We had 11 turnovers in the first half, but most of those were flurry type plays where we'd steal the ball, they'd get it right back and we'd bat it out of bounds. Albright played a 2-2-1 (full-court) press the entire second half, and we didn't turn it over once. That enabled us to score 41 second-half points, and was big for us as we continue to move forward.”
Lobach finished with a game-high 24 points and four assists, charting her seventh 20-point plus game of the season. Junior Ashley Brooks added 10 points, as did classmate Silalei Shani, who also grabbed a team-best seven rebounds.
Messiah shot 53.8 percent from the field in the second half (14 of 26) while holding Albright to just an eight for 26 effort (30.8 percent). The squad's 11 total turnovers was the second-lowest amount of the year, bettered only by six miscues in the team's 62-47 win at Alvernia College on Jan. 10.
“Nikki was huge for us both in distribution with four assists but also defensively on (Albright's Annie) McMahon, one of their key players,” Miller said. “She hit some big shots as well. Really, everybody played very well for us. We battled and we're starting to look good.
“This is two games plus five minutes now that I've been really proud of the kids and it's been really consistent the entire time,” he continued. “Albright just played great tonight, and we responded. It's 85 straight minutes of good basketball for us and we're hoping to continue it.”
Messiah will look to collect its sixth consecutive MAC Commonwealth win — and 38th straight regular-season conference win at home — Saturday when the team hosts Elizabethtown College. Game time is set for 2 p.m.
