Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Reading, PA — Playing in its first Commonwealth Conference game in over a month, Messiah looked the part of recent success Saturday, defeating Albright College by a 62-50 score. The victory was the fourth straight for the Falcons, which improved to 8-5 on the season.
Messiah (8-5, 2-1) shot 49 percent from the field and forced 21 turnovers from Albright (4-7, 0-3), committing only 14 turnovers of their own — a season-low.
“Both teams started off very well,” said Mike Miller, Messiah head coach. “It was a back and forth game until the last three or four minutes of the first half. We put a run together in the last few minutes of the first half. We changed defenses and that affected them, and we ended up scoring the last 15 of the last 18 points of the first half.”
Five lead changes and three ties dotted the first 15 minutes of the contest, as neither team could muster more than a four-point advantage. A jumper from freshman Kira Maier began a surge that would change all of that, however, as her bucket with 5:13 to play started a 15-3 Falcons' run: Senior Michele Schleich followed with a layup, and freshman Dori Gyori knocked in two free throws. Maier nabbed one of Messiah's 14 steals and scored a transition layup, being fouled in the process.
A Gyori layup was followed by a long three-pointer from freshman Taylor Miller with just 1:10 to go, and the Falcons had opened up a 33-22 lead at the break. In the final 5:13 of play, Messiah knocked in six of nine shots from the floor, limiting Albright to just one of eight shooting and four turnovers.
Behind a respectable crowd in the Bollman Center, Albright was able to get the Falcons' lead down to eight just three minutes into the second half, using a quick, 5-2 run to close within a 35-27 deficit. Back-to-back buckets from Gyori reopened a 12-point difference over the next two possessions, however, and Messiah was again rolling: A jumper from Maier at the 7:04 mark stretched things to a 53-36 disparity while another post bucket from Gyori made it a 58-38 contest with 3:17 to go, Messiah's largest lead of the afternoon.
Miller's club was able to run away with things despite the Lions shooting a reasonable 19 of 47 (40.4 percent) for the game, producing identical rebounding numbers to the Falcons as well.
“Albright executed very well,” Miller said. “We changed defenses again in the second half and they had a little bit of trouble scoring again. We played very well throughout the entire game. We had a season-low in turnovers, started hitting shots and were really in control of the game. Dori was great the whole way through and so was Michele.”
After being limited to single-digit scoring totals in each of the last three games, Gyori exploded offensively, scoring 19 points on a remarkable nine of 11 shooting performance. She also grabbed eight rebounds and three steals. Schleich, meanwhile, played 38 minutes, scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
“We need to continue to work on consistency for offense,” Miller said. “We need better execution on offense for the whole 40 minutes. We need to work on getting the shots we need to get. Defensively we were really good. They had about four or five different defenses. We did a good job figuring out what they were doing.”
Messiah will not have long to relish in its latest league victory, as arch rival Elizabethtown College is set to visit Brubaker Auditorium Tuesday. Game time for the single contest is set for 7 p.m. Messiah and Elizabethtown's men's teams will compete Wednesday evening in Brubaker Auditorium, also at 7 p.m.
