Grantham, PA — There may have only been four Messiah players to come off the bench in Wednesday night's Commonwealth Conference Semi-Final match-up with visiting Widener University, but for nearly all intents and purposes, they may have been the most important folks inside Brubaker Auditorium.
With foul problems plaguing the majority of the Falcons' usual suspects, sophomore Anna Walker and freshmen Julia Groves, Kira Maier and Tremaine Simmons combined to score 28 points and play a total 70 cumulative minutes, pushing Messiah to an 85-70 win over the Pride in the most eccentric of fashions.
Messiah now advances to Saturday's Commonwealth Conference Championship game at top-seeded Lebanon Valley College, as the Dutchmen handed fourth-seeded Alvernia University an 87-77 loss Wednesday night as well.
“What can you say about the play of our bench?” Messiah head coach Mike Miller asked afterward. “They were absolutely key for us.”
A season-high 53 called fouls thrust Messiah's reserves into the limelight, as starters Jordan Seiz (freshman) and Michele Schleich (junior) each had three infractions within the game's first 20 minutes.
Add two fouls apiece to senior stat-stuffer Julie Henninger and freshman post Dori Gyori, and Miller was left searching for a plausible lineup.
Enter the aforementioned quad off the pine.
Walker, Groves, Maier and Simmons combined to play 41 of the first half's 100 cumulative minutes, helping to extend a Falcons' lead late in the first period — opening up a 39-30 difference at the break.
Freshman Nicky Hess buried a three pointer to turn a 22-17 Messiah lead into a 25-17 advantage with just over seven minutes to play in the first half, while a jumper from Maier made it a 27-17 spread just a minute later.
When Widener trimmed the lead to five points (28-23) with 4:27 remaining before the intermission, Hess knocked down another triple — this one coming off a gorgeous baseline feed from Simmons — to regain a 33-25 advantage.
Another jumper from Maier stretched things to a 36-25 lead with 1:55 to go, while three made free throws from Hess helped to the eventual nine-point difference at the break.
Hess led all scorers with 13 points in the first half, but Maier wasn't far behind with eight. The Falcons' lineup featured five freshmen throughout the majority of the period's last 10 minutes, a stretch that Miller said was a key to the game.
“If we don't get that kind of production at that point, I'm not sure we win this game,” he said. “If we're not up nine at halftime, when you consider how well Widener came out of the gates (to start the second half), I'm just not sure if we sustain it.”
The Pride threatened to make things close at the start of the final half, but another three-ball from Hess would get Messiah (22-4) untracked. Widener opened the period with a pair of layups and two made free throws, pulling to within a 39-36 score just a minute and a half in.
That's when Hess rang up her third long ball of the night, however, nudging the Falcons back on top by a 42-36 score.
A layup from Seiz and two free throws from Gyori made it a 46-38 difference with 16:54 to go, and Messiah was back on its way: Another layup from Maier made it a 51-38 ballgame with 15 minutes to play, while a steal from Maier led to a layup from Hess one minute later, opening up a 55-40 disparity.
Widener (15-11) would eventually trail by as many as 16 points (62-46 with 10:56 remaining) before closing the gap to nine on a pair of occasions, but the Pride simply did not have enough to get closer. A jumper from Groves turned a 69-60 contest into a 71-60 affair with 6:04 to go, while a sweet up-and-under move from Maier made it a 73-61 difference at the 5:08 mark.
The visitors would get no closer than 11 points from there on out, as Messiah buried its last 10 free throws to ice things.
Hess finished with a career-high 21 points on six of 11 shooting, while Maier also carded a career best with 15 on an identical shooting mark from the floor. Schleich added 14 points and five rebounds, while Walker and Groves each scored six.
Messiah's bench play was further highlighted by what the squad's usuals were not, as Henninger scored just nine points in 22 foul-plagued minutes, and Gyori seven in 16 minutes of action.
In addition to her scoring outburst, Maier also dished out a career-high five assists to go with a career-best six steals; she also had eight rebounds, one off her best collegiate mark.
“Kira, G (Groves), Anna, Tremaine, they were just wonderful,” Miller said. “They brought great intensity, great fire. Because of their play, we overcame some adversity tonight. Our foul trouble took away some things, but our bench was great. Nicky really played well with them, and that was a key as well.”
Dictated by whistles early and often, Wednesday's game had the look and feel of a post-season battle from the outset, as the teams combined for five fouls in the game's first three minutes.
At the half, Messiah had been called for 13 violations and Widener 11, with the Falcons owning a slight advantage at the free throw line (12 of 16, 75 percent compared to the Pride's nine of 13, 69.2 percent).
Things did not quell from there, as Messiah eventually made 28 of 41 charity tosses (68.3 percent) — far and away season highs in both makes and attempts. Widener, meanwhile, converted on 21 of 30 foul shots (70 percent). The frenetic pace of the game also produced a combined 47 turnovers, though the Pride committed 28 of those giveaways.
“We didn't necessarily want to run with them, but this is the most free we've played this year,” Miller said. “Coming into the game, I wouldn't have believed we'd win a game with an 85-70 final score. Widener did some new things that worked well for them, but our bench really came up big.”
The Pride placed four players in double figures in the loss, led by Kate Dellinger's 16. Widener's Lil Carney added 15, while Becky Tyler scored 14 and Casey Pritz 11.
“I thought Casey Pritz played really well for them tonight,” Miller said. “That's the best she's played against us in six chances.”
Entering the game, Messiah was looking to avoid the same Widener-induced calamity as last season, when the Pride stunned the Falcons by a 60-57 score in one of the league semi-finals. The Falcons had swept Widener in regular-season play in 2008-2009 — and repeated that feat with 74-39 and 62-45 wins this year.
Fortunately for Miller, Messiah claimed its second conference semi-final win over Widener in the last three years — marking the fifth time the teams had met at this juncture in the last eight seasons.
“The only effect (last year's loss) had was that I was doubly nervous, because I knew it could happen,” Miller said. “But this group doesn't really know much about last year, because it's an entirely different team and so many of them weren't here. I know I didn't talk about it at all, and that was on purpose.”
What Miller will talk about is the potential for Messiah's fifth Commonwealth Championship in the last six years, as the second-seeded Falcons will now travel to top-seeded Lebanon Valley Saturday afternoon. For the first time since the 2001-2002 season, Messiah was swept by LVC during regular-season play, dropping a 42-58 loss in Annville, Pa. Jan. 20 and a 39-52 defeat in Brubaker Auditorium Feb. 12.
Ranked 21st in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll and 20th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, Messiah will be looking to dethrone LVC — ranked 19th in both ballots — a team the Falcons had beaten on 17 straight occasions before this year.
“It's going to be really nice going into a conference championship game as an underdog,” Miller said. “This program hasn't had a chance to be in that position for a long time.”
Messiah and Lebanon Valley will compete for the league title — and an automatic berth in this year's NCAA Tournament — Saturday at 1 p.m. in LVC Gymnasium. Ticket prices are $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for all students. Children under the age of six are admitted free.
