Box Score
Grantham, PA — As the Messiah team watched Lycoming College and Rowan University head to overtime in the opening game of Friday's Hampton Inn Tip-Off Classic, senior Michele Schleich approached her head coach in the Brubaker Auditorium stands.
“She looked at me and said, 'Coach, we've got our fire back,” Messiah head coach Mike Miller said. “That was all she said, and she had a big smile on her face when she said it.”
Schleich and company would let their play do the rest of the speaking.
After dropping a disappointing, 58-61 loss at Johns Hopkins University to open the season Wednesday, Messiah came out with selfless abandon in its home-opener Friday evening, dishing out 19 assists and placing three players in double-digit scoring en route to a 77-45 thumping of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.
The Falcons weren't magical shooting the basketball — the team made 27 of 61 shots overall, 44.3 percent — but the effort on the glass (a 52-30 advantage in total rebounds) and on defense (Pitt-Greensburg was limited to just 18 of 57 shooting, 31.6 percent) turned things into a haymaker early on.
“I was extremely pleased with our energy on the glass and our overall effort,” Miller said. “We had some players say that they were embarrassed with how they played Wednesday. It was clearly a team effort for us tonight.”
Messiah (1-1) shook off a nervy opening two minutes before starting its roll, turning the ball over three times and missing a jumper in its first four posssesions.
Once the squad settled down, however, things got out of hand quickly: The Falcons led 14-4 just seven and a half minutes in, extending the lead to 26-9 five minutes later.
Pittsburgh-Greensburg (0-1) pulled to a 31-17 score with 3:13 to go in the opening period, but Miller's club closed the half on a 10-0 run, taking a 24-point lead into the locker room at the break.
Little changed after the teams switched ends of the floor.
An old-fashioned three-point play from sophomore Becca Albus put Messiah up 30 (53-23) just seven and a half minutes into the second half, while a three-pointer from classmate Jordan Seiz made it a 41-point game (68-27) with 8:06 remaining.
That would be the hosts' largest lead of the evening, though steady play throughout the Messiah lineup kept things from getting much closer down the stretch: A layup from sophomore Tiffany Mills gave the Falcons a 73-35 lead with just 3:18 to play, and a Seiz layup maintained a 75-38 spread with 2:20 to go.
A late surge from the visiting Bobcats made the final spread a bit more respectable, as the visitors hit their last three shots from the floor to pull to the closing 77-45 difference.
Sophomore Dori Gyori paced Messiah with her 11th career double-double, charting 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in just 21 minutes of work. Freshman Chelsea Danel notched double-figure scoring for the first time in her young collegiate career with 12 markers, while Seiz finished with 10 points. Freshman Taylor Miller and sophomore Kira Maier each scored nine — Miller doling out a game-high five assists and Maier snatching seven boards.
As a team, the Falcons 19 assists were the most since a 77-47 win at Arcadia University Feb. 13 of last year, where the team equaled Saturday's total.
“Obviously our ball movement was great tonight, and we had the opportunity to go against a zone (defense) for the first time this season, including both of our scrimmages,” Miller said. “From a coaching standpoint, I like what we're seeing. We have different personnel that can give us completely different looks in the same offense, and that is a real plus.”
Piitsburgh-Greensburg's Stanton Casey led all scorers with 21 points on the evening. The Bobcats were playing without two of their usual starters, both out due to injury. On the Messiah side, Albus made her first appearance in a Falcons' uniform, scoring six points, grabing three rebounds and dishing out two assists in just 12 minutes of work. It was Albus' first game since recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament all of last season.
“Having Becca on the floor was wonderful,” Miller said. “It's been a long time coming. And give (Pitt-Greensburg) credit. They're playing short-handed and it was their first game of the year. I think they'll look back on this game kind of like how we hope to look back at our (Johns Hopkins) game. You could see at the end, when things slowed down a bit, they started making shots. They will win quite a few games this year.”
The Bobcats will face Lycoming Saturday at 1 p.m. Messiah and Rowan will then meet up in the 3 p.m. contest.
Rowan handed Lycoming a 73-65 overtime defeat in Friday's initial game of the Hampton Inn Tip-Off Classic, outscoring the Warriors by a 10-2 count in the extra session.
Neither of Friday's decisions had any bearing on Saturday's match-ups, however, as the Falcons' tournament was conducted in a classic format for the second straight year — this weekend's event due to the fact that Messiah and Lycoming are conference foes.
“We're looking forward to playing a talented Rowan team coming off its first win,” Miller said. “It will be a test of our defensive concepts against their offensive concepts. Whoever wins that battle will most likely win the game.”
