Reading, PA — As Messiah head coach
Rick Van Pelt walked off the Bollman Center floor and towards the visitor's locker room on the campus of Albright College on Wednesday night, he took a few, last looks at the scoreboard that hung over midcourt.
The final score was stinging in nature: Albright 73, Messiah 67.
Though the Falcons lost the close battle, Van Pelt's glances towards the scoreboard could only leave him glimpses of what may have been.
“We battled our tails off tonight,” said a melancholy Van Pelt afterwards. “However, they had players step up and make shots when they needed. They finished at the basket. They scrapped for some important rebounds. They just found a way to compete and come out on top.”
With the victory, Albright — at 20-5 overall and the second-ranked team in the newly-released Mid-Atlantic Regional poll — advanced to Saturday's Commonwealth Conference championship game opposite top-seed Lycoming College, 90-81 victors over Elizabethtown College Wednesday night as well.
With the loss, the Falcons conclude their season with a 16-9 overall record, their highest win total in the past three seasons.
“Anytime a season ends it's difficult,” Van Pelt stated. “But, it's especially tough when it's a group that's been such a joy to coach as this one. They battled in practice. They battled in games. They believed in one another and in the coaching staff. I've been at this a long time in both the high school and college ranks and this group has been one of the top teams I've ever had the privilege to coach.”
While Messiah may have wanted to win the battle from behind the arc Wednesday evening, it was the battle in the paint that turned out to be the difference.
Forty of Albright's 73 points came inside while the Falcons scored 28 around the basket.
“Simply stated, they (Albright) finished around the basket and we didn't,” noted Van Pelt. “Even some of their best shooters, (Zac) Shaeffer and (Matt) Ashcroft, only hit a combined three three-pointers but they finished at the basket. Their ability to penetrate – mixed with our inability to contain the basketball tonight – really hurt. They took it to us around the basket whereas we let some easy opportunities, on our offensive end, slip away.”
In the waning moments of the second half – just four days after Messiah defeated Albright 77-66 on the same floor – the Falcons had put together a furious rally to give themselves a chance to climb back into the game and steal a victory.
A few minutes before the finish, it didn't look like it would even come close down the stretch as the host Lions held a 69-56 lead with 2:10 left – and had two free throws to extend the lead.
However, Albright's Jeff Sparrow missed both attempts at the charity stripe and junior Josh Hartman canned a three on the ensuing possession to cut the deficit to 69-59.
Following another miss by Sparrow on a one and one, senior Kyle Snyder converted a layup with 1:25 left and Albright's lead was down to eight, 69-61.
Snyder's driving bucket served as the final points on the night for the Shikellamy, Pa. native who finished with a heroic all-around effort of 15 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
Van Pelt called a quick 30-second timeout to gather his troops and once play resumed, Albright's Andre Murphy connected on one of his two attempts at the line.
Falcon sharp-shooting junior Tyler Ritzman nailed a three in transition and suddenly, with just 54 seconds remaining, the battle was a two-possession game, 70-64.
The Lions' Justin Plummer converted one of two free throws and senior Jamie Yoder continued the long-ball barrage for Messiah, connecting on a deep three to trim the Falcons' deficit to four, 71-67.
Yoder's triple gave him a game-high 22 points on the night and capped a perfect three-for-three effort from behind the arc.
After both teams traded timeouts, Messiah forced Albright's Shaeffer into a turnover near midcourt and Yoder came away with the steal.
Suddenly, there was a major heartbeat on the Messiah bench.
In transition, Yoder put up a contested lay-up in traffic, drawing contact by the Lions' defenders but, unfortunately – and more importantly – not drawing a whistle from the officiating crew.
Messiah freshman Chris Yoder grabbed the rebound and went back up in traffic once again drawing contact but no foul, much to the distaste of the Messiah faithful in attendance.
The loose ball went out of bounds off of Messiah and the majority of the 1,783 fans at the Bollman Center exhaled.
After a timeout by Van Pelt, the Falcons were forced to foul Albright's Ashcroft, and the junior missed his first free throw but nailed his second with 16 seconds left to make it a 72-67 Lions' advantage.
With many eyes on the midcourt scoreboard watching the seconds tick down, Ritzman put up a deep three that didn't catch the rim and settled into the hands of Sparrow, who was immediately fouled.
Sparrow stepped to the free throw line and converted one of two.
Snyder pulled down his game-high 12th rebound but a three-quarter court effort for three didn't come close and the final seconds had ticked off Messiah's season.
From the outset, Albright showed why they are one of the top teams in the region – in fact, a few slots ahead of the Falcons who were seventh in the aforementioned Mid-Atlantic Regional Poll.
At the beginning, Albright jumped out to a 14-7 lead but the Falcons went on a 12-5 run midway through the opening stanza to knot the game at 19.
In the run, freshmen Derek Mosley had seven of his nine points on the night while Snyder chipped in two and Jamie Yoder converted an old-fashioned three-point play in the paint to cap the scoring run and tie the contest.
The Lions followed with a 7-1 spurt but once again it was Messiah who answered the call when they needed to make run.
Down 26-20 with 6:56 left in the half, the Falcons went on a 7-0 run over a span of just over three minutes.
Junior Josh Hartman penetrated to convert a lay-up in the paint while Snyder picked up a basket and a foul, connecting on the free throw. Jamie Yoder followed a possession later and the Falcons had grabbed their first lead, 27-26, with 3:34 left.
Both teams traded punches in alternating leads but it was the Lions who had the final roar of the half.
With Albright up by three with seven seconds left and Messiah at the line, the Falcons missed the front end of a one and one.
The hosts quickly pushed to the other end of the court and one of the Commonwealth's premier shooters – Albright's Shaeffer – launched a three-pointer that found nothing but net with two seconds left.
It was the junior's first three-point basket of the night – but one that gave Albright a huge boost as they went into the locker room with a 36-30 advantage.
Messiah was quick to come out of the gate in the second half paced by a 7-2 run over the first four minutes cutting the Albright lead to one. Junior Colton Reitz scored all five of his points on the night during this stretch while Jamie Yoder added the last two to make the score 38-37 in favor of the hosts with 16:09 left.
Unfortunately for Van Pelt's squad, they would never knot the score or again make the game a one-point spread the rest of the way.
After Yoder's jumper, Albright went on a 17-6 run in less than six minutes and the Lions started running away with the game – and the careers of Messiah's two seniors, Snyder and Yoder.
It seemed to be one of many runs for Albright which didn't have too much of a problem putting points on the board – or at least shooting at a high percentage.
In fact, the Lions converted on 53 percent of their attempts from the field (28 for 53) while the Falcons connected on 26 of their 62 attempts (42 percent).
The Albright run gave them a 55-43 lead with 10 minutes left in the half and over the course of the next seven minutes, Messiah closed to seven on two separate occasions.
Then, Albright's Ashcroft hit two free throws with 3:13 left – which was preceded by Sparrow's two misses – and the Falcons' late rally which saw them come up just short.
And with that, the Falcons had lost the game.
As the postgame handshakes began, some tears started to flow from both Snyder and Yoder.
“If you would've told me before the game that Shaeffer would have 16 points, Ashcroft would score 12 and Hall would be scoreless, I would've taken the bet of our chances to win,” stated Van Pelt, referring to the trio who was averaging 18, 15 and eight, respectively. “In fact, we did some things tonight that we really wanted to do. We made more threes (nine to five), grabbed more rebounds – four more on the offensive end – only had 10 turnovers and held some of their top players below their average. However, they received some great contributions from some other players and that's what winning teams do. They needed different guys to step up and they got it in a big way from (Justin) Plummer (12 points, 10 rebounds) and (Adam) Van Zelst (11 points).
“I feel the worst for our two seniors,” continued Van Pelt. “I have had the opportunity to coach some tremendous players in our program over the years. However, none can really compare to what these two brought to the table day in and day out. We can replace their shooting ability or ability to crash the boards but replacing the intangibles is what will be so hard. Kyle and Jamie played with so much heart, desire and unselfishness, and they created a culture within our program that made guys step up their game as to not let the seniors down. That will be tough to say goodbye to.”
After most of the team was cleared from the floor, it was Van Pelt who was the last one heading to the locker room after the game.
Walking off the floor, the glance to the scoreboard came.
While the what-ifs were certainly running through his head, the head was held high.
His Falcons had fought – hard.
And while they may not have won this fight, Van Pelt's group could certainly leave the Bollman Center with their heads held high.
It's what Van Pelt would want them to do, its also what Messiah's two seniors would ask from their teammates, as well.
Heads held high. A promise to come back and fight, practice after practice and game after game.
After all, Kyle Snyder and Jamie Yoder showed them no other way.
