By Keaton Kasiguran, GoMessiah.com reporter
Glenside, PA — Legendary University of Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz once said that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.
An appropriate thought for the Messiah women's basketball team Saturday afternoon.
Less than 24 hours following the program's 39-52 loss to Lebanon Valley College Friday evening, the Falcons took the perfect opportunity to “respond” by hitting the road and thumping Arcadia University, 77-47. For Messiah head coach Mike Miller, the opportunity to get back on the floor following the program's first regular-season Commonwealth Conference home loss in 52 games was welcomed.
“It was very fortunate that we got to play the next day,” Miller admitted Saturday. “It was not only an opportunity to put the LVC loss behind us, but it gave us an immediate chance to get better.”
Messiah (19-3, 9-2) had the edge over Arcdia (5-17, 0-12) in the first half, but the hosts would not go away easily. Despite the efforts of junior forward Michele Schleich and freshman guard Nicky Hess, Messiah could only manage to stretch their lead to seven points for 17 of the first half's 20 minutes — a spread the visitors generated on four different occasions.
Every time the Falcons' advantage reached seven, however, Arcadia battled back to prevent the visitors from pulling away.
The Knights did well to avoid one of Messiah's famous surges, holding the Falcons to nine of 24 shooting from the field — two of which were 3-pointers — over the game's opening 17 minutes.
However, as many teams in the league have found out, it's difficult to contain Messiah forever.
If there were questions surrounding Messiah's ability to respond following Friday's defeat, those doubts were quickly erased over the first half's final three minutes.
A Schleich layup with 2:41 left in the period sparked a 9-2 scoring outburst for the Falcons and, in the final seconds, Messiah threw a knockout punch in the form of a Hess three ball to pull ahead by a 31-17 count at the break — putting a major kibosh on Arcadia's thoughts of dealing Messiah a second loss in a row.
Hess would start the second half the way she ended the first, hitting her third and final three pointer of the game. By the 14:02 mark, Messiah extended their lead to 26 points (47-21), with standout senior guard Julie Henninger completing an old-fashioned three-point play.
Miller said he couldn't have been more proud of the concentration and mental toughness his team showed throughout the game.
“I was very impressed with the way our girls responded tonight,” Miller said of his battle-tested team. “They were certainly tired on the bus ride here, but their attitude was very business-like once they hit the court for warm-ups. You could see it in their eyes.”
Over the last 12 minutes of play, eight different Falcons recorded points as Messiah emphatically got back to its winning ways — the final 30-point margin the fifth largest spread of the season. Hess led the visitors with a career-high 16 points, three assists and two steals on the afternoon, while Henninger had 13 points for the game, going a perfect 5 of 5 at the charity stripe. Freshman forward Dori Gyori was also impressive, putting up 10 points and 12 boards — her fourth double-double in the Falcons' last five games.
For the Knights, senior guard Kim Milligan and junior forward Corrine Geiger both finished with 10 points. Freshman forward Jackie Law recorded nine points, 15 rebounds and six assists.
While Messiah's weekend double-header was the first in conference play, it was the team's third of the season overall — a fact that Miller said provides great experience for his ball club with the post-season looming ahead.
“This was the third time we've had two games in as many days,” Miller recalled. “It's especially good for our younger players to gain this kind of experience - experience that will be important in NCAA's.”
With the win, Messiah maintained its stranglehold on second-place in the Commonwealth standings with three games left to play before the league tournament begins. Miller said his team wants to take advantage of every chance to get better over the final games of the season, especially with a possible re-match with the Lebanon Valley in the cards.
Still, Miller insists his squad's focus will be to take each game one at a time.
“Each game is an opportunity to get better, and that's our plan for the last three games,” Miller added. “As I said after the LVC, on to the next one.”
Messiah will next host Lycoming College to Brubaker Auditorium on Tuesday night, the first of a three-game in five-day stretch for the club. Game time is set for 6 p.m.
