Box Score
Grantham, PA — Shooting the basketball wasn't necessarily the problem for Messiah Wednesday night.
Preventing a couple of opponents from knocking in shots repeatedly was.
Lebanon Valley College's Anthony Trautman and Joe Meehan scorched the Falcons for 50 total points in Brubaker Auditorium, leading the visiting Dutchmen to an 83-65 win — and their second Commonwealth Conference victory of the season.
Trautman knocked in nine of 14 shots — including a four for six performance from beyond the three-point arc — for 27 total points, while Meehan canned eight of 10 foul shots en route to 23 markers, helping LVC offset an overall 26 of 52 shooting effort (50 percent) from Messiah on the evening.
“We didn't really have an answer for Trautman and Meehan tonight, and it really boiled down to that,” said Rick Van Pelt, Messiah head coach. “We couldn't stop them. It was too easy for them to score, and we didn't play good team defense.”
Messiah (7-9, 2-4) led for all of 43 seconds, as a sweet baseline pull-up from sophomore Chris Yoder opened the game. The Dutchmen's Danny Brooks scored a layup on LVC's first possession and, following a missed jumper from senior Josh Hartman, used a Meehan layup to take a 4-2 lead.
The guests would never trail again, as Meehan's driving bucket began a 15-0 run, resulting in a 15-2 advantage with just four and a half minutes of game clock elapsed.
Not necessarily rattled, Van Pelt's team scratched and clawed to stay in it. A steal by sophomore Derek Mosley led to a layup from freshman Brad Bolen with 4:05 to play, cutting the Dutchmen's lead to just 33-27. When the visitors regained a 10-point lead with 1:50 to go in the half, back-to-back buckets from senior Tyler Ritzman helped pull the Falcons to a 39-33 deficit at the intermission.
Sadly for the hosts, however, it would be just too much Trautman and Meehan.
A 49-43 LVC lead at the 15:03 mark was blown open to a 71-49 difference over nine minutes of game time. Messiah would get no closer than 16 points the remainder of the way, as six free throws from Meehan in the final minute of action sealed the deal.
Those charity tosses were just part of a 20 of 28 foul shooting performance (71.4 percent) from Lebanon Valley (10-6, 2-4), numbers which trumped Messiah's seven of 16 effort (43.8 percent).
It marked the sixth time of the season an opponent made more free throws than the Falcons attempted, and increased the disparity between free throws: Through Wednesday, Messiah is now attempting nearly eight fewer foul shots per game than their opponents.
“LVC made more free throws than we attempted,” Van Pelt said. “That's happening almost every single game to us. Generally, that's something that happens once or twice a year. We've got to look at adjustments and things we can do to help us get to the free throw line and keep other teams from getting there so frequently.”
It — along with the performances of Trautman and Meehan — was the difference in the game, as LVC made only two more baskets from the floor than Messiah. Ritzman and freshman David Fernandez each scored 10 points to lead the Falcons' effort, while Yoder and Bolen each scored eight. Junior Jeremiah Runkle pulled down a team-leading five rebounds.
The loss makes Messiah's next league tilt even more important, as the team will travel to Arcadia University Saturday to close out the first round of league play against the Knights. Game time is set for 3 p.m.
“Arcadia hasn't got a win in the league yet, but like Lebanon Valley, they've played a lot of teams tough,” Van Pelt said. “We're kind of in the situation where, if we win, we're still in the hunt (for a post-season berth). If we lose, we're kind of on the outside looking in, and we'll need to gain some ground in the second half of the season. We're looking at it as a game we've got to get.”
