Chester, PA — A season-high 26 turnovers was enough to thwart a 40-17 rebounding advantage and a ferocious comeback from Messiah Saturday afternoon, as the Falcons dropped a heartbreaking 77-80 loss at MAC Commonwealth Conference-leader Widener University.
Messiah (4-13, 2-3) closed the game with a 17-5 run and held the host Pride without a field goal over the final 6:02, but a 30-foot three-point attempt from junior Jamie Yoder came up well short at the final horn, keeping overtime a mere wish.
“Widener forced us to make a lot of mistakes, which is what they want to do,” said Rick Van Pelt, Messiah head coach. “They're good. They play a much different style than anyone else in our league. We talked about guarding the ball with our life coming in. We just weren't able to take good enough care of it to win against the best team in the league on their floor.”
The Falcons evenly split their 26 giveaways between halves, but a 16 of 25 first-half effort from the floor (64 percent) gave Messiah a 44-43 lead at the intermission. Sophomore Colton Reitz paced that effort with 12 first-half points — en route to a career-high 15 — going three for four from the floor and a perfect six for six at the free throw line.
Van Pelt's squad got down by a 12-5 score early (thanks in part to a pair of turnovers in the team's first five possessions), but a 10-0 run made it a 15-12 Messiah lead with 13:08 to go.
Five different players scored for the Falcons during that stretch, while Messiah would lead by as many as eight points at the midway point of the first period.
A Widener push gave the hosts a 27-26 lead with 7:21 to go in the first half, however, while an eventual five ties would lead to the seventh lead change of the contest at the halftime buzzer. Widener (13-4, 4-1) claimed a 43-41 lead with 22 seconds remaining, but a three pointer from senior Jason Miller just before the halftime buzzer cemented the 44-43 Messiah lead at the break.
“We shot the ball pretty well, which was a big reason we were ahead at the half,” Van Pelt said. “Because they pressure you so hard, Widener will give up some layups, but they force you to take quick shots at a fast pace. That's exactly what they want you to do. You have to pick and choose when to take those shots, and even when you do get an open look you can still feel somewhat panicked or rushed.”
The Pride's run-and-jump, full-court pressure seemed to intensify at the outset of the second half, as a 48-45 Messiah lead slowly turned into a 73-58 Widener advantage. The Falcons committed 10 of their 13 second-half turnovers during that run, a span that encompassed 11 minutes of game clock.
But, as has slowly become Messiah's mantra as of late, the team refused to give in. Still trailing by 15 points (60-75) with 5:29 to play, the Falcons began to attack Widener's pressure with reckless abandon, cashing in six of its next seven shots from the floor to pull back into the mix. A pair of layups from senior Drew Sneeringer sparked the run, while driving buckets from sophomore Tyler Storch and junior Kyle Snyder aided the efforts. When senior Andy Hawk scored a layup with 41 seconds to play, Messiah trailed by just a 74-77 score. Following a pair of made free throws on the Widener end, it was Yoder that rung up a huge three with 14 seconds on the game clock, pulling the visitors within a 77-79 difference.
The host Pride certainly aided in the Messiah comeback, as Van Pelt began extending the game through fouling with just under six minutes to play. Widener went on to miss seven of its last 14 free throws — a stretch that led to just an 11 of 19 second-half performance from the line (57.9 percent).
Widener point guard Bobby Edmunds provided a microcosm of that statistic with just 11 seconds to play, as Miller fouled the lightning-quick playmaker to stop the clock following Yoder's three ball. Edmunds missed the first of the double-bonus but made the second. Widener called timeout.
Looking for a three-pointer to tie, Messiah ran a set that freed Miller with a direct lane to the basket. At the last moment, Miller turned and rifled a pass back to Yoder, whose deep three-point attempt from straight away failed to draw iron as the game clock expired.
The host Pride had escaped.
“As a coach, you always second-guess yourself on sets that don't work at the end of a close game, and we didn't get a very good look on that one,” Van Pelt said. “(Widener) did a pretty good job defending it. It wasn't the shot we wanted.”
Messiah did connect on a season-best 53.8 percent of its total shots in the loss (28 of 52), while the Falcons plus-23 difference in rebounding was far and away a season-best mark. Widener converted on the exact same ratio from the floor, with the final scoring difference coming in one more made three pointer (the Pride finished six of 15 from deep, Messiah finished five of 15) and two more made free throws (Widener 18 of 29 from the line, Messiah 16 of 19).
“At the end of the game, we really started getting to the basket,” Van Pelt said. “The free throw line obviously helped us, not so much on our end but in Widener missing some late. Defensively, we were pretty pleased with things except for the overall tempo of the game. A lot of that, though, had to do with our turnovers and not as much with our defense. Widener also shot it very well, but they had a lot of breakaway layups that came off our turnovers. In the end, that was the biggest difference. We just turned the ball over too much.”
Reitz's career-high 15 points came on a four of five performance from the floor and a seven of eight tally from the line, giving the 6-6 post a career-best for the third consecutive game. Storch also carded a career high in scoring, tallying 13 points on a six for nine clip. Sneeringer equaled that point total on a five of nine shooting performance, while Yoder (12 points) and Miller (11) gave Messiah five double-figure scorers for the first time this season.
“This was Tyler Storch's type of game, and he played very well in it,” Van Pelt said. “As for Colton, I think his last couple games demonstrate a combination of things. For one, we're not relying on bad three-point shots as much and two, the other guys are really starting to develop confidence in him in the post. I think our guys are starting to realize he's hard to guard down there one-on-one. When he makes his free throws, he's really tough to stop.
“It's disappointing to lose this one, but at least our team is gaining confidence and realizing that we can play with anyone, anywhere,” he continued. “We're starting to realize that these games are up to us. We're starting to get healthy. It's encouraging to see. We just have to continue to get better. Just knowing that we can win any game is a big thing for us right now.”
Messiah will return to Brubaker Auditorium for its next conference game, as the squad will host Lycoming College Wednesday night. Game time is set for approximately 8 p.m., as the second leg of a women's-men's double-header.
