Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — Tuesday's snowy weather made getting to Brubaker Auditorium a chore, and as a result only 328 people witnessed the evening's Commonwealth Conference match-up between Messiah and Elizabethtown College.
The Blue Jays may have been better off staying home as well.
Messiah rolled to its second straight league victory — and fifth consecutive overall — behind a 58-40 dismantling of E'Town, limiting the visitors to just 27.8 percent shooting (15 of 54), including a ridiculous two of 20 effort from three-point range (10 percent).
The hosts, meanwhile, converted on an impressive 45.1 percent (23 of 51) from the field, heating up to a smoking 54.5 percent clip (12 for 22) in the second half in rolling to their latest win.
“(Elizabethtown) makes the most threes out of any team in the league,” said Mike Miller, Messiah head coach. "They average eight of 22 shooting per game, but they were forced into taking a lot of poor shots today. We were exceptional defensively again. Elizabethtown also missed some open looks. (Sophomore) Nicky Hess and (senior) Michele Schleich did a great job guarding (Elizabethtown's) Megan Strohman in the first half. She has to score for them to do well.”
Strohman did score — she finished with 12 points — but she needed 14 shots to do so, making just five. Messiah (9-5, 3-1) immediately jumped out to a quick lead, as sophomore Kira Maier sunk a layup to give the Falcons a 2-0 advantage after just 14 seconds. Elizabethtown (7-5, 2-2) tied it, but the Falcons scored seven in a row to take an early 9-2 lead. They were helped by Elizabethtown's one of 12 shooting to begin the game, including two missed free throws.
The Falcons continued to add to their lead throughout the first half, helped by Elizabethtown's continual missed shots.
The Falcons led 20-10 with 5:40 left in the first period before a combined 12 missed shots (seven from Messiah, five from Elizabethtown) resulted in four and a half minutes without any points from either team.
Schleich and freshman Taylor Miller added layups and the Falcons took a solid 24-12 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Messiah continued to build upon its advantage.
They increased the lead to 17, but a jumper and a layup by Strohman and a layup by the Blue Jays' Kathy Snyder cut the Falcons' lead to 11, 34-23, with 11:55 to play.
A jumper by sophomore Jordan Seiz began a 10-0 Messiah spurt, however, and the hosts grabbed a 44-23 lead and essentially put the game away.
Even with the starters pulled in the final few minutes, the Falcons' lead climbed to 53-28.
It got only remotely closer from there, as Messiah led at least 10 points for the last five minutes of the first half and the whole second half.
Taylor Miller led the team with 16 points on seven of 13 shooting and turned the ball over just twice in 31 minutes of play. Maier added 10 points and grabbed a team-high eight boards. Sophomore Dori Gyori added nine points and six rebounds.
“We were not as good offensively today,” Miller said. “We need to continue to get better. We did a good job of not turning the ball over but we're still young and inexperienced and it takes a lot to read the defense. We did a much better job of reversing the basketball, taking our time and playing much calmer in the second half. We scored 10 more points than we did in the first half even though we pulled our starters with six or seven minutes left in the game.”
Miller and company will look to keep their collective surge going Saturday, when the team travels to Alvernia University for another conference match-up. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
