Box Score
Grantham, PA — The second round of regular-season Commonwealth Conference play began for Messiah Saturday night against Widener University in Brubaker Auditorium.
Thankfully, no one was hurt.
In a game that featured a season-high 48 personal fouls — and an incredibly rare technical foul on Messiah head coach Rick Van Pelt — it was the Falcons that proved most durable, hanging on for a 59-54 win, avenging a 72-80 loss to the Pride in early December.
After allowing Widener (9-9, 4-4) to shoot almost 60 percent from the floor in the teams' first meeting, Messiah (9-9, 4-4) cranked up the defensive pressure Saturday, limiting the visitors to just an 18 of 42 performance (42.9 percent), numbers which were backed by a nearly identical effort on the boards and an impressive job of taking care of the basketball: Van Pelt's club turned it over just 11 times — a season-low against a Pride team that prides itself on forcing giveaways.
“Those things really were the difference tonight,” Van Pelt said. “They shot the ball extremely well at their place, and we defended better tonight. We limited our turnovers tonight, and at their place we threw it all over the gym at times. We also got to the foul line tonight, and that was a key.”
Fouls would be the overriding story of the evening, as the 48 total infractions dwarfed the total number of field goals made (36) from both clubs. Not surprisingly, scoring was at a premium, as a traditional three-point play from junior Jeremiah Runkle made it a 10-10 game ... with only 9:52 remaining in the first period.
A layup from freshman David Fernandez made it a 12-12 game with 5:51 to play in the first half, but thankfully the teams started making up for lost time in the final five minutes of the period. Four straight Widener free throws helped the Pride close the stanza on a 15-11 run, taking a 27-23 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
Messiah shot just 26.9 percent from the field in the game's opening 20 minutes, while being whistled for 12 of its total 22 fouls — a number that didn't include Van Pelt's first 'T' of the season with 4:55 remaining.
“I thought we did a good job of hanging in there,” Van Pelt said. “It was a tough game, and some of that was my fault, because for a stretch there we were focused too much on the officiating. We have to realize that we're not finishing very strong at the basket a lot of the time, and that's why we're not getting calls. We have to get better at finishing strong around the rim.”
With Van Pelt's technical out of the way — “I honestly can't remember the last time I got one,” he would say — Messiah began to click offensively. Back-to-back layups from freshman Christyan DeVan and Runkle tied the game at 31-31 just three and a half minutes in, and from there it would be a neck-and-neck affair: A total of 18 lead changes and 13 ties kept the spread between four points until the final 15 seconds of play, as each team had its chance to secure the needed league win.
A pair of free throws from sophomore Derek Mosley gave Messiah a 51-49 advantage with just over two minutes to play, but Widener's Perry Wright canned a baseline three on an out of bounds set just moments later — all with just three seconds remaining on the shot clock — to give the Pride a 52-51 lead.
DeVan got free inside and converted a twisting layup on Messiah's next possession, and after a defensive stop was wasted with an ensuing turnover, Van Pelt's club got the signature play of the night: Playing solidly on defense once more, Messiah forced a miss from Widener's Chris McDevitt, and Runkle yanked down his 10th board of the game. He found DeVan on a short outlet pass, but freshman David Fernandez was streaking free down the court.
DeVan found him with a pin point feed, and Fernandez finished in style, throwing down a two-handed yoke that brought the 483 in attendance to their feet.
Trailing by just three, Widener called a timeout, but the Falcons' defense again was too much. Wright couldn't finish a hotly contested jumper and Runkle again cleaned up the miss, subsequently fouled with 15 seconds to stop the clock.
A 44 percent free throw shooter on the year, Runkle calmly sunk both his freebies, putting the Falcons up 57-52. Widener again couldn't connect on a deep shot, and when the Pride's Adam Ahren tied to follow with a layup, Runkle swatted it. He collected the deflection and again was fouled, canning both free throws again to push Messiah's lead to seven points.
Only a foul by Fernandez at the horn helped the Pride not finish the game on the losing end of an eight to nothing Messiah run, as Wright knocked in two free throws with just three tenths of a second on the game clock to complete the scoring.
Runkle was a beast once again for the Falcons, scoring 14 points to go with a game-high 12 rebounds — his third double-double in a Messiah uniform and second consecutive. Fernandez finished with a game-high 17 points, while Mosley scored 11 in just 23 minutes of work off the bench.
Messiah's 19 of 28 effort (67.9 percent) at the free throw line outdid Widener's 15 of 21 performance (71.4 percent) by sheer volume, as it was only the fifth time of the year that the Falcons attempted more charity tosses than their opponent.
“Jeremiah was great for us tonight,” Van Pelt said. “He did a great job keeping plays alive, diving for loose balls, giving us energy. I thought Derek Mosley also came in and played really well for us. Overall, we defended the interior much better than we did at their place, and that was a big key to our success. Offensively, we still didn't have a very good flow for much of the game, but we had some guys make plays. We made just enough.”
The win pushed Messiah into a three-way tie for fourth-place in the current league standings, though the Falcons will continue its tour of top-shelf teams next: The Falcons will travel to second-place Elizabethtown College Tuesday night, and will then host league-leading Alvernia University Saturday.
“This win pulls us a little closer to where we want to be,” Van Pelt said. “It makes E'Town a big game, but for all the right reasons. We lose this one today, E'Town is a big game because we feel the pressure to win or possibly get further out of the (post-season) hunt. Now, though, we need to keep feeding off the excitement of pulling it closer. We went 3-4 in the first half of conference play, and now we're 1-0 in the second half. We're trying to win every one.”
The Falcons and the Blue Jays will meet up Tuesday at Thompson Gymnasium. Game time is set for 8 p.m.
