Grantham, PA — For all intents and purposes, Saturday's Commonwealth Conference match-up with Widener University was a must-win game for Messiah.
Judging by his play, Jamie Yoder was well aware of the circumstances.
The senior guard finished with a team-leading 17 points, scoring the game-tying bucket to force overtime and bombing a pair of threes in the extra session, helping Messiah to a 65-61 overtime win in a raucous Brubaker Auditorium.
“Jamie was clutch,” Messiah head coach Rick Van Pelt said. “He stepped up big. He wanted those shots. He took them like a senior.”
Yoder's efforts helped cap a display of utter perseverance for Messiah (8-4, 1-2), as the Falcons fell behind for the first time of the day (54-55) with just 1:29 remaining in regulation. Following a pair of free throws, Widener (8-5, 1-2) led by a 56-54 count with just 37 seconds to go, and Van Pelt called a timeout.
“Jamie came over and told everyone that we were not going to lose this game,” Van Pelt recalled. “Now, you can come away from a statement like that wrong some of the time, but he wasn't going to give up. And, he wanted to prove he would be right.”
Van Pelt designed a gorgeous play following the inbounds that freed up Yoder on a back cut in the lane, and the 5-10 Lancaster, Pa. native twisted his way for a backboard-less lay up off a nifty feed from sophomore Trey Ritzman with 14 seconds to play.
Widener had a pair of chances to win on its final possession before overtime, but the Pride's Bobby Edmunds missed a runner in the lane and teammate Jack Brennan came tantalizingly close to finishing a tip-in as the buzzer sounded — the ball rolling around the rim before falling off the edge.
Overtime would again test Messiah's internal fortitude, as Widener built a three-point lead just moments into the stanza. Freshman Derek Mosley nearly finished an old-fashioned three-point play on the Falcons' next possession, but his post attempt just missed — and Messiah pulled within a point off his two made free throws.
Widener again pulled to a three-point lead on an acrobatic layup from guard Onyi Ezeala, but Yoder was not about to be outdone: A deep three on the wing tied the game at 61-61 with 1:39 to go, and Brubaker was rocking.
Following a timeout from Widener, Van Pelt's team was able to get a stop on the defensive end, as Yoder pulled down his only rebound of the game off another missed runner from Edmunds. On Messiah's ensuing possession, Yoder again got free on the right wing, burying his third triple of the night to put the Falcons up by a 64-61 count with 43 seconds to go.
Widener called a timeout to set up its final look to tie the game, and Messiah hung on despite giving up a pair of offensive rebounds in the final 24 seconds of play: Brennan rebounded his own missed layup, and Edmunds collected an o-board following a wide-open three-point miss from teammate BJ Smith.
With the clock winding down, Edmunds had to pull a closely-guarded 30-footer from the left side, missing the rim entirely. Freshman Chris Yoder grabbed that board, and made one of two free throws after being fouled with three seconds remaining — icing the game with the two-possession lead.
“We did just enough of the right stuff to get this one,” Van Pelt said. “I think we did a pretty decent job of breaking their pressure, and we were able to settle down offensively. Our guys battled. We kind of held them at bay until the very end, and when we did get down, we held our poise. It was a very good win for us, obviously.”
It appeared that overtime was an unlikely possibility early in Saturday's contest, as Messiah jumped out to a 17-4 lead over the game's first six minutes of action. Chris Yoder began things with a quasi-dunk on Messiah's first possession, while a three-pointer from Mosley kept the Falcons' spread at 21-12 with 12:08 remaining.
Gradually, however, Widener was able to assert its patented pressure defense, forcing Messiah into 10 of its 11 first-half turnovers over the period's final 11 minutes. Meanwhile, the Pride collected seven of its eight first-half offensive rebounds in the final 12 and a half minutes of play, helping to pull within a 37-35 deficit at halftime.
A 12-2 Messiah run midway through the second half turned a 41-41 game into a 53-43 difference with 7:10 to go, but again Widener proved difficult: A three-pointer from Brennan sparked a 10-0 run from the Pride over the next three minutes, setting up the game's closing dramatics.
“You definitely have to control the tempo of the game against Widener, and I thought we did that,” Van Pelt said, citing the Pride's 76.8 points-per-game average entering Saturday. “Heck, our press offense took us nine point nine-nine-nine seconds to get it into our half court. But seriously, even though we turned it over a bunch (22 times), most were deadball turnovers: We'd chuck it out of bounds, travel. They weren't turnovers that led to fastbreak layups for them, which was important.”
Messiah's 48.9 percent shooting from the floor (23 of 47) and seven of 16 clip from three-point land (43.8 percent) helped offset a 35-28 Widener advantage on the boards, as the Pride collected 18 second-chance possessions to just eight for the Falcons.
In the end, however, it was Jamie Yoder's clutch buckets that proved to be the difference, as the senior scored 14 or more points for the 10th time this season, leading the squad in scoring for the seventh game overall and third straight.
Chris Yoder complemented Jamie's efforts with 13 points and five rebounds. Mosley scored nine, as did junior Colton Reitz. Senior Kyle Snyder shared game-high rebounding honors with eight caroms. Brennan led Widener's clip with 21 points and eight boards.
“I like (Messiah women's soccer head coach) Scott Frey's philosophy,” Van Pelt said. “We want to win our next game and our last game. I think, in the back of our minds, we knew that being 0-3 in the conference would be pretty tough to come back from. But we weren't thinking about that. We were just trying to win this game.
“Now, we shift our focus to Lycoming, who has proven to be the best team in the conference so far,” he continued. “We'll have to work to prepare with just a day of practice. Again, we'll have our work cut out for us.”
Messiah will travel to Lycoming — owners of an 11-2 record overall and a 2-1 mark in conference play — Wednesday evening. Game time is set for 8 p.m. in Lamade Gymnasium.
