Grantham, PA — Say this much about the new-look playing surface in Brubaker Auditorium:
It doesn't seem to have an adverse effect on the home team's depth perception.
Messiah canned a season-high 12 three pointers and half of its total 58 attempts from the field Wednesday evening, handing visiting Penn State University Harrisburg an 80-70 defeat on some renovated hardwood.
With the institution utilizing the holiday break to completely strip, re-sand and re-paint Brubaker's main floor, the Falcons' men's team wasted no time in christening it with a win — the team's third consecutive.
“We've been shooting a lot in practice,” said Rick Van Pelt, Messiah head coach. “But then again, we've shot a lot of free throws, too, and that didn't go too well for us tonight.”
Perhaps Messiah's only downfall of the evening was its 10 of 16 composite effort from the charity stripe (62.5 percent), but that statistic turned out to be moot behind a 41-34 advantage in total rebounds and a 17 to seven lead in total assists.
Van Pelt's squad jumped out to an early 13-6 lead by making six of its first nine shots from the floor, maintaining a 22-16 spread midway through the opening period following a triple from senior Kyle Snyder.
A gradual push from the visitors cut the Falcons' lead to a single point with 3:47 to go, but a long ball from freshman Chris Yoder sparked a late, 8-3 Messiah run, giving the hosts a 37-31 advantage at the intermission.
“Penn State scored 13 of their 31 points off of offensive rebounds in the first half, and we had to address that,” said Van Pelt, whose team trailed by a 7-2 margin in that category at halftime. “We tried some different things in the second half, different people guarding different people, and we made some team defensive adjustments. More than anything, though, I thought we really blocked out better in the second half, and that led to some transition baskets for us on the other end.”
Perhaps as a byproduct of that improved effort, Messiah (7-4) scored nine of the second period's first 14 points to jump out to a 46-36 lead. When Chris Yoder buried a three ball at the 10:52 mark, it was a 54-42 contest.
Junior Colton Reitz got free following a defensive rebound from freshman Derek Mosley with just over eight minutes to play, taking a long pass before making a nifty up and under move to avoid the onrushing defense — and giving the Falcons a game-high 16-point lead (67-51).
Penn State Harrisburg (5-5) immediately called timeout following Reitz's bucket, looking for one more push.
Had it not been for Messiah's stellar shooting, the visitors may have had it.
The Nittany Lions put on a 9-1 run over the game's next four minutes, taking advantage of a rare Falcons' dry spell and pulling within a 69-61 score with just 4:10 remaining on the clock.
Another three pointer — this one from sophomore Trey Ritzman — squashed that momentum, however, and Messiah regained a 72-61 lead on its next possession.
Penn State Harrisburg would get no closer than the final 10-point difference for the remainder of play, as the Falcons made four of their final five foul shots — plus two of their final four attempts from the field — to keep a double-digit cushion down the stretch.
Senior Jamie Yoder again paced things offensively, scoring 25 points just a game after his career-best 30 in Messiah's 86-76 win at Medgar Evers College last Tuesday. Chris Yoder added 16 points and a career-high six rebounds to go with a game-high five assists, while Trey Ritzman scored 14 off a five of seven shooting performance.
Snyder finished with nine points and 12 boards — his seventh double-digit rebounding total of the season — while Reitz scored nine points as well.
Messiah's 12 total three pointers were the program's most since making 15 last season against — ironically — Penn State Harrisburg, coming out of Middletown, Pa. with a 92-68 win on Feb. 5, 2009.
“Everyone did some really good things for us tonight,” Van Pelt said. “I thought we executed some things offensively and negated some of their advantages in athletic ability, explosiveness and quickness. While I thought we played hard, I didn't think we had that pinpointed focus that we've shown before. This was only our second game in a month, though, and I think we're a team that plays better when we're in a rhythm. Now we get back to playing every third or fourth day, and I think our guys will welcome that.”
Messiah returns to Commonwealth Conference play next, hosting one of the pre-season favorites — Widener University — Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Brubaker Auditorium.
“This was kind of a good game for us leading into Widener,” Van Pelt said. “Penn State provided some similarities to what we'll see Saturday. We need to continue to work on breaking pressure. Widener is very good, and they may be even more athletic than they were last year. We'll have our work cut out for us.”
