Grantham, PA — An informal poll of the Messiah College women's basketball team revealed Holland, Michigan as the number one spring break hotspot for 2008.
Following a 55-49 win over Tufts University Saturday night in Brubaker Auditorium, the team's tickets are now punched.
Messiah (29-2) used a rugged defensive game plan and overall poise to knock off the Jumbos in the 2008 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship 'Elite 8,' sending the Falcons to the Final Four for just the second time in school history. Messiah will now meet up against Oglethorpe University (Atlanta, Ga.) next Friday at Hope College (Holland, Mich.) in one of the national semi-finals; Howard Payne University (Brownwood, Tx.) and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (Whitewater, Wisc.) will clash in the other side of the bracket.
With Saturday's win in front of another near-sellout Brubaker Auditorium crowd, Messiah set a new program record for wins in a season, one-upping the previous best set in the 2002-2003 season.
The Falcons now head to the Final Four for the first time since the 2000-2001 campaign, when the team lost in the national championship to Washington University in St. Louis by a 67-45 score.
According to head coach Mike Miller, that past experience will help prepare the staff for what to expect.
This year's journey in and of itself, however, is completely autonomous.
“(The 2000-2001 Final Four run) was like lightening in a bottle for us,” Miller said in Saturday night's post-game press conference. “Our heads were spinning. As a staff, we now have an idea of what to expect, but this year has been an entirely new experience in its own right. I couldn't have wished this opportunity on a better group of young women. They have all worked so hard to give themselves the best possible chance at this opportunity, and it's a group where 15 people want it for bigger reasons than themselves. I'm thrilled, I'm excited and I'm thankful.”
Miller's group successfully navigated the tournament's first two weekends in a variety of manners, running away from Cabrini College (Radnor, Pa.) by a 63-34 score in the first round and then shutting down St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y.) in the second half for a 64-49 decision in round two action.
The squad then turned a 15-point deficit into a 73-61 win against the University of Rochester (Rochester, N.Y.) in Friday night's 'Sweet 16' contest, while Messiah had to find a way to combat a deliberate, power-game attack against Tufts (Medford, Mass.) Saturday.
In the end, Messiah proved it could win in almost any fashion against any style opponent, perhaps the most succinct explanation for its Final Four berth.
“I don't think we really have a style (of play),” Miller said Saturday. “I know we have a team full of people that could press for 40 minutes and play an up-tempo, full-court game, but we don't do that because if you want to win at this time of year, you just can't. If we have a style, we try to hang our hat on our defense and try to be disruptive. (We) try to figure out the best way to do that. The offense comes afterwards.”
Miller figured the offense would be tough to come by Saturday against Tufts (26-4), as the Jumbos were coming off two straight wins in which no individual scored in double-figures. The squad also held its competition to an average of just 41.5 points in those two contests, using a massive front line of 6-3, 6-1 and 5-11 to make things difficult on opponents.
Naturally, Messiah responded in kind, putting up a defensive gem of its own in Saturday's first half. The Falcons held Tufts to just five baskets from the field in claiming a 21-13 lead at the break, as senior and All-American Nikki Lobach picked up two fouls in the first 1:57 in being reduced to a spectator early.
The Falcons then leaned on their defensive abilities to stay close — Messiah made just seven baskets of its own in the first period — as the score stayed deadlocked at 13-10 for a stretch of five minutes and 21 seconds late in the stanza.
A layup from Lobach broke the spell with 4:39 to play before the intermission, and the teams would combine to score just nine more points before the halftime buzzer sounded.
“Tufts is a team that doesn't necessarily slow the game down, and they actually push the ball up the floor,” Miller said. “But what they are good at is pulling the ball out if they don't have anything, and going through their reads. That, coupled with their defense, shortens the game quite a bit. There are fewer possessions, and we knew that going in. We actually were very pleased to be up eight at halftime, because in a game like this it seems like an even bigger lead than usual.”
As a trip to the Final Four got closer, the action picked up considerably in the second half. A beautiful pitch and pop from Lobach to junior Ashley Brooks opened the period, giving Messiah a 23-13 lead just moments in. Tufts continued to stay close, however, utilizing the play of 6-1 senior Khalilah Ummah and 6-3 junior Katie Tausanovitch. The duo scored nine of the Jumbos' next 11 points, pulling the visitors within a 27-23 score with 16:45 to play.
When Tufts' freshman sparkplug Colleen Hart hit a runner at the game's 13:36 mark, Messiah's lead was trimmed to just two points.
Like they have so many times this season, Miller's team had an answer every time.
Junior Sal Shani scored a bucket in the paint to push Messiah's lead back to four points, while a pull-up jumper from senior Amy Reed negated another Ummah basket on the Falcons' next trip.
Perhaps the game's signature moment occurred on the Falcons' next offensive possession, however, as Shani lost the ball to Ummah near the top of the key. As the Tufts' 6-1 center dribbled uncontested the length of the floor, Reed sprinted from behind and blocked Ummah's layup attempt at the pinnacle.
The 5-7 Reed then rebounded the swat, brought the ball back down the floor and buried another pull-up jumper, giving Messiah a 35-29 lead with 10:33 to play.
As Brubaker vibrated with deafening noise, even the veteran guard could not help but smile on her way back down the court.
“I thought I could catch her because she's a pretty big girl, but she's pretty fast, too,” Reed said following the game. “I just went up to try to contest her shot, and she brought the ball back enough where I could get it. It was just a reaction.
“I've never heard that place so loud in my life, and I never thought me blocking a shot would cause that. I just thought it was funny.”
Tufts would again do its best to make a game of it down the stretch, but Messiah would continue to make one more play than the Jumbos. A traditional three-point play from Tausonovitch pulled the visitors within a 38-34 margin with 7:01 to go, but a baseline three pointer from junior Katie Kalb regained a 41-34 spread on the Falcons' next trip.
The Jumbos then began fouling to extend the game in the final three and a half minutes, but Messiah made eight of its final 10 free throws to secure its place on the grandest stage of all.
Lobach again led Messiah with 19 points on four of 11 shooting from the field and a 11 of 14 performance from the free throw line, while Reed added nine points and a career-high three blocks. Shani scored eight points and shared team-high rebounding honors with four — sophomore Julie Henninger grabbed that amount as well — while Brooks added seven points.
Messiah captured the win despite being outrebounded by a 38-29 margin and connecting on just 17 of 46 shots from the floor (37 percent), the team's lowest field goal percentage in almost two months.
Those numbers were yet another reminder to Miller — and the four senior captains of Lobach, Reed, Lauren Schurr and Gwen Avery — of just how special this group is.
“I know we all think we're good, but it's just us,” Lobach said during the press conference. “I mean, we're just regular basketball players. I don't feel we're anything special.”
Said Schurr: “It hasn't really set in yet. (Going to the Final Four) has always been something way out there, and it's something that I've thought about for four years. But it doesn't feel real yet. Maybe when we get there it will.”
A lengthy standing ovation at the conclusion of Saturday's game and an obligatory net-cutting ceremony was tangible enough, as Miller addressed the fervent crowd on the public address system. The weekend was the first time in program history that Messiah hosted the rounds of 'Sweet 16' and 'Elite 8' on its own campus. Despite the fact that the school began its spring break at the start of the weekend, a near sell-out crowd was in attendance both Friday and Saturday.
“Thank you so much for your support these last two weeks, we couldn't have done it without you,” he said. “You guys are absolutely awesome, and we hope to see a lot of you in Michigan!”
Messiah will now spend its spring vacation preparing to travel to Hope, as the team will face Oglethorpe (27-5) — ranked 24th in both the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll and the D3hoops.com ranking — as the Stormy Petrels advanced to the Final Four by virtue of a 98-86 win over #11 Kean University Saturday night.
Ironically, Kean was Messiah's last loss of the current season — a 69-64 defeat on Jan. 19 in Brubaker Auditorium — while the Cougars ended Messiah's year in last season's NCAA Championship Second Round as well.
Miller wouldn't go as far to say he was happy to be playing Oglethorpe, but he didn't express any sadness about not getting to see Kean, either.
“I'm just happy to be playing somebody different, and I bet Oglethorpe feels that way, too,” Miller said. “It's new and it's fresh for both teams, and for us it's nice not to have to play someone you've already played earlier in the year. Let's face it, all the teams left are top-notch. We're just happy to be going.”
The Final Four will be played in Hope's brilliant DeVos Fieldhouse, with semi-final games scheduled to take place at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday. The championship contest will take place Saturday at 6:05 p.m., while the consolation game will occur at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Messiah will face Oglethorpe in the 5:30 semi-final Friday; Howard Payne and UW-Whitewater will play in the 7:30 p.m. contest.
Messiah has been allotted a pre-determined amount of tickets to the games by the NCAA. Those tickets will go on sale in the Messiah College intercollegiate athletics department, located in the Sollenberger Sports Center, Monday at noon.
(This is a change from the original listed location of the campus information center.)
Additional details regarding the team's run to the Final Four will be made available at this site when they become available. To view the official host website of the 2008 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship, click
here. For an updated tournament bracket, click
here.
