Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — Saturday night's Commonwealth Conference game against Widener University wasn't just a league game.
It was a game with deeper meaning.
Back on Dec. 4, the Falcons suffered a heartbreaking, 83-77 overtime loss at Widener's Schwartz Center — a defeat that entered the team into a three-game losing streak, dropping their record below .500 for the first time in 15 years.
Since then, the Falcons have won seven of eight games, however, including six by double-digit margins.
Saturday, with Widener on the docket once more, Messiah made certain another tailspin would not occur.
Freshman Taylor Miller struggled with her shooting all night, connecting on just two of 14 field goals and none of three foul shots. But with just 22 seconds remaining, Miller connected on three free throws to give the Falcons a 50-49 lead, and an eventual 51-49 victory.
"(Senior) Michele (Schleich) had a big offensive rebound," said Mike Miller, Messiah head coach. "She kicked it out to Taylor who was open, but Taylor was knocked to the ground shooting a three. She needed to make all three foul shots with the game on the line for us to have a chance to win, and she stepped up big time. She had missed some shots earlier and she showed some real mental toughness there."
Although the ending was great, the first half was anything but pretty.
Messiah (12-6, 6-2) took a 4-2 lead a couple of minutes into the game with two layups by sophomore Dori Gyori. Then Widener (9-9, 5-4) embarked on a dominating 12-0 run, holding the Falcons scoreless until the 9:06 mark in the first half. By that time, they trailed 16-4.
Miller's club chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 20-12 with just five minutes left in the half. But the Pride scored five quick points to increase their lead to 13, more than the amount of points Messiah had scored up to that point in the game.
A layup by sophomore Becca Albus at the buzzer cut the deficit to 27-16 heading into halftime.
"I told our girls that we needed to just keep plugging away, and it was going to be a long process to come back," said Miller. "They needed to keep attempting to do the things they're asked to do. We just did not play well in the first half. We didn't execute well, both on offense and defense."
The Falcons scored the first four points of the second half on a jumper by Taylor Miller and two free throws by senior Michele Schleich. Widener responded to the challenge, however, by scoring the next four points to increase its lead to a comfortable 11-point margin.
The Falcons then turned in one of the most impressive stretches of the season, scoring 10 points over the next six minutes, while holding Widener scoreless. After Schelich and sophomore Kira Maier hit layups in a 30-second period, Messiah trailed by just one, 31-30, with 11:33 to go.
Widener's Joanna Persiano hit a big three to increase the Pride's lead to 34-30, but the Falcons showed a tremendous amount of heart yet again: They scored the next seven points, highlighter by sophomore Nicky Hess's tie-breaking three pointer, to take a 37-34 lead with 8:19 remaining in the game.
From then, the game turned into a slugfest, heavyweight style. Messiah lost the lead with 5:28 to play, trailing 40-39. But a layup by Schleich with three and a half minutes to play gave the team a 45-43 lead. Maier added two foul shots to increase the lead to 47-43 just 40 seconds later.
Widener fought back, and tied the game at 47 off a free throw from Vaness Hejnas with just 1:32 to play. The Pride's Persiano then sunk a layup to give Widener a big 49-47 lead with just 34 seconds remaining in the game.
Then came Taylor Miller's heroics. To that point in the contest, Miller had made two of her 14 shots from the field, including an zero for eight performance from the three-point line. She also missed on all three free throws — a rarity for the usual 76 percent free-throw shooter.
But after she was fouled shooting a three pointer by Widener's Lil Carney, Miller stepped to the line and calmly sunk all three free throws to give the Falcons a 50-49 lead with just 22 ticks remaining in the game.
Widener's Kate Dellinger missed a potential game-winning three-pointer off the iron with four seconds remaining, and Schleich grabbed the rebound — her team-leading 10th — and was fouled immediately.
She connected the second of two foul shots, giving Widener the slightest bit of hope with three seconds remaining.
Following a timeout, however, the Pride failed to complete a pass to midcourt, giving the ball back to Messiah and ending any chance at a last-second, buzzer beater.
"In the second half, I thought our girls played their second-best half of the season," Miller said. "They committed only six turnovers and out-rebounded a really good rebounding team. We missed 15 shots and had 10 offensive rebounds in the second half. We outscored them 35-22 in the second half and executed from both ends. We crashed the boards defensively. We just need to continue doing what we're doing. Michele had the biggest game of her career in a game that really mattered. She guarded their best player the whole game and didn't allow her to have an open shot in the second half. It was just a really, really good team win, when it very easily could have gone the other way.”
Schleich scored 15 and grabbed 10 rebounds, including 10 points and six boards in the second half. Gyori scored 10, grabbed eight rebounds, and collected three steals.
In addition to preventing a Widener regular-season sweep, the Falcons' win helped the team grab sole possession of second place in the conference standings.
“There's a lot of basketball left to be played,” Miller said. “Every game is important.”
That statement is perhaps never as true as this week, as the team will travel to arch rival Elizabethtown College Tuesday evening. Game time is set for 6 p.m. in E'Town's Thompson Gymnasium.
