Grantham, PA — As Cabrini College (Radnor, Pa.) made its first trip to the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball National Championship Tournament in eight years, the Lady Cavaliers were expecting to play an opponent with Messiah written across the front of the jerseys.
As it turned out, MACK Truck may have been more appropriate.
The Messiah College women's basketball team used a dominating first half to run over Cabrini by a 63-34 score Friday night in Brubaker Auditorium, advancing to the national tournament's second round for the ninth straight season. The Falcons — ranked fifth in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll and fourth in the D3hoops.com rating — held the Lady Cavaliers to just five first-half buckets en route to a 40-14 lead at the intermission, turning Friday's late-evening contest into a sleeper early on.
Messiah will now face St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y.) in Saturday's second round, as the Saints slipped past William Paterson University (Wayne, N.J.) by a 64-57 score in Friday's opening tilt.
“This was pretty good stuff for us tonight,” said Mike Miller, Messiah head coach. “If we could bottle up our first half of play, we'd feel pretty good about our chances. We really tried to assert ourselves on the defensive end of the floor, and we were able to do that right from the start tonight.”
The rout began slowly at first for Messiah (26-2), as the team scored just 11 points in the game's first seven minutes to capture an 11-2 lead. It was at that point that the team's offense began to catch fire, however, as Miller's team scored 21 points over the next eight minutes of play to open up a 32-12 lead with just under five minutes on the clock. Cabrini would make its last field goal of the first half with 6:06 remaining, helping Messiah push its lead to a 26-point difference at the break.
The first-half statistics were dismal for the Lady Cavs, as Cabrini made just five of 18 baskets from the floor (27.8 percent) while committing 17 turnovers. Meanwhile, Messiah buried 15 of 28 first-half attempts (53.6 percent) — including five of 11 from deep — turning the ball over on just seven occasions.
“You could tell (Cabrini) was getting frustrated early, and that was the game plan,” said junior forward Ashley Brooks, who finished with 10 points and five steals in just 24 minutes of work. “We thought if we could keep them from getting the looks that they wanted, they would get flustered. We wanted to push them out on the floor and keep them from the shots they wanted to shoot.”
That plan seemed well executed throughout the game, as Cabrini continually milked its own shot clock down to single digits, most probably due to lack of choice. The Lady Cavaliers were held to just two buckets from the field in the first 10 minutes of the second half, as Messiah built its largest lead of the game — a 54-18 spread — with 11:44 to play.
It was then that Miller called off the attack, resting many of his regulars while becoming somewhat one-dimensional in his play calling.
“We wanted to start the second half strong defensively, maintain our focus and then get some people some rest,” he said. “We also didn't want to show St. Lawrence much of anything, so we kept the offense fairly one-tracked. We ran the same out of bounds play over and over, and I had players pleading with me to call something else.”
It was not to be on this night, however, as no Messiah player logged more than 22 minutes while the bulk of the Falcons' starters spent most of the second half as spectators. Senior Nikki Lobach led the team with 12 points, though 10 came in the first half as did 14 of her total 20 minutes played. Junior Silalei Shani scored 10 points and grabbed six boards for Messiah, playing just 14 total minutes.
With the second-half alterations came miscues, however, as Miller's team made just seven of 30 shots from the floor (23.3 percent) while committing 13 turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
“We had some different combinations on the floor late and we had people playing in spots they're unaccustomed to playing,” Miller said. “We work all year long on certain situations, and then we totally abandon that work to get some people some rest and get some younger players some tournament experience. I didn't expect it to be pretty.”
Friday's final score was handsome — at least comparatively — as the 29-point win was Messiah's second largest margin of victory in 23 total NCAA Championship Tournament games played. Only the Falcons' 84-46 defeat of Hood College in the first round of the 2003 tournament provided a greater spread.
As reward for winning, Messiah will now face a scrappy St. Lawrence team Saturday night, as the Saints held on for an impressive 64-57 win over William Paterson in Friday's first contest. Junior forward Katie Palmer led all scorers with 23 points in the game, while St. Lawrence led from start to finish in a close-knit affair (box score).
The Falcons are now trying to make it to the 'Sweet 16' for the first time since the 2005 season, as the squad's journey has ended in second-round play in each of the last two years.
For seniors like Amy Reed, it seems too early to hang up the shoes.
“I think we've gained some more confidence from our experiences over the last few years, and I think we understand what it takes,” Reed said. “Besides that, we love each other and want to play with each other as long as possible. Or at least until the NCAA tells us we can't anymore.”
Messiah will play for the right to continue Saturday night at 7 p.m. against St. Lawrence in Brubaker Auditorium. Doors will open to the public at 5:30 p.m. Tickets for all NCAA National Tournament games are $6 for adults, $4 for senior citizens and $3 for students with ID. Fans unable to attend the games at Messiah will have the option of listening to all the action on the radio dial (90.7 FM) or on the world wide web, as
WVMM,
Messiah College Radio will cover all tournament games with live, play-by-play action. To access the station's streaming audio, click
here. For a printable bracket of the 2008 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship, click
here.
