Grantham, PA — To the probable chagrin of the rest of the MAC Commonwealth Conference, the Messiah College women's basketball team appears to be hitting its full stride at precisely the right time of year.
Messiah — ranked ninth in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll and 10th in the most recent D3hoops.com rating — handed Elizabethtown College an 86-51 loss in Brubaker Auditorium Saturday afternoon, the team's sixth straight league win and 38th straight regular-season conference home win overall.
Saturday's contest was never in doubt, as Messiah (19-2, 6-0) led for the duration in what was the team's second-largest margin of victory (the Falcons defeated Johns Hopkins University by an 85-40 score back on Nov. 20).
Committing just eight total turnovers and holding Elizabethtown (10-11, 1-5) to just a 31.5 percent shooting performance overall, there was a discernable gleam in Messiah head coach Mike Miller's eye following the game.
“This is how we want to play every time out, and this is how we should be playing by our expectations,” he said. “We took care of the basketball tonight, we were disruptive on the defensive end of the floor and we carried out our plan no matter who or what combination of players were on the floor. This is the third straight game that I thought we were pretty good throughout, and that is exciting to see.”
Miller's team did not take long to assert its dominance, as a layup from junior Ashley Brooks accounted for the game's first bucket, while a driving layup from senior Nikki Lobach gave Messiah a 6-0 lead just four minutes in.
The Falcons led 10-2 just a minute and a half later, and the spread was nearly the same — 25-18 — with just 5:01 remaining in the first half.
Messiah closed the first half with a 13 to four run, however, forcing the Blue Jays into misses on eight of their final 10 shots from the floor. The Falcons led at the break by a 38-22 score, setting the stage for what would be an even greater performance in the latter 20 minutes.
Following a made layup from Lobach just nine seconds into the second half, E'Town's Erin Walton buried a three pointer to make the score 40-25. That would be as close as the visitors would come, as Messiah scored 10 of the game's next 12 points to open up a 50-27 lead with 15:26 to play.
Elizabethtown cut the gap to 19 points — 56-37 — on another triple from Walton with 12:13 to go, but a 16 to two Messiah run over the game's next six minutes blew things open. After a steal and subsequent three ball from Brooks at the game's 6:04 mark, the Falcons possessed a 72-39 lead. A layup from junior Kristen Groff gave the hosts their largest lead of the game — 85-45 — with 50 seconds remaining, but E'Town remained aggressive and went to the line six times in the contest's final 36 seconds, making them all to close to the final 86-51 count.
Lobach led all scorers in the game charting 17 points on just a seven of nine shooting effort from the floor. Junior Silalei Shani scored 10 and grabbed a game-high seven boards, while senior Amy Reed scored 10 points and dished out a game-high four assists. Every dressed Messiah player scored save for freshman Michelle Schleich. Miller utilized his bench early and often during the second half, as all players logged a minimum of eight minutes.
Messiah's 57.1 shooting percentage was the team's best league output of the season and third-highest total overall, while the team's eight turnovers were just two off its season-low six (against Alvernia College on Jan. 10).
“It really was a good effort from top to bottom today, and I was pleased with how we kept the pressure on throughout,” Miller said.
Messiah will return to the road for its next league contest, as Miller vies for his ninth consecutive 20-win season as the program leader. The Falcons will take on Lycoming College Wednesday night. Game time is set for a 6 p.m. tip.
