Box Score
Grantham, PA — Moments before Saturday's Commonwealth Conference regular-season finale against Albright College, the Messiah men's basketball program thanked its seniors.
Moments afterward, thanks was extended to Arcadia University.
After the Falcons hung on for a thrilling, 63-62 win over the Lions, public address announcer Alan McCullough stole the spotlight, announcing that Arcadia had beaten Elizabethtown College by an 85-84 count — the combination of the events earning Messiah a spot in the four-team Commonwealth Conference Tournament.
“Unbelievable,” said Messiah head coach Rick Van Pelt. “We knew we needed some help from the outside, but we couldn't worry about that. We had to beat a very good Albright team that was fighting for their own lives, and that was enough to be concerned with.”
As focused as Van Pelt and company may have been, it didn't keep eyes from wandering in Brubaker Auditorium during Saturday's clash. With laptop computers open and smart phones in abundance, the Arcadia-E'Town game was as much a part of the action as the players on the court.
Making things even more stressful was the fact that E'Town and Arcadia tipped off an hour before Messiah — making one piece to the post-season puzzle available to Van Pelt during the Falcons' game.
Not that he wanted to hear it.
“At halftime (of our game) I was told it was close,” Van Pelt said of the Arcadia game. “But I tried not to find out what happened while our game was going on. Then, during a timeout with about a minute left, (assistant coach) Scott (Barton) said to me, 'Elizabethtown lost. Do you want to tell our guys for motivation?' I thought they had enough pressure on them already. So we did our best to not worry about that.”
It wasn't as if Messiah (12-12, 7-7) didn't have enough to deal with on its own floor. After leading by as many as 16 points in the first half and 13 early in the second, Albright (15-10, 7-7) was in the midst of making things extraordinarily tight — and threatening to make the entire Arcadia-Elizabethtown conversation a moot point. When Lions' do-it-all guard Zac Shaeffer drilled his second three-pointer of the game with 1:55 to play, Albright trailed by only a 56-55 count, and the 1,000-plus in attendance grew audibly anxious.
It was the beginning of an unforgettable final two minutes of action.
On Messiah's next possession, senior Josh Hartman was fouled, and he canned both. Shaeffer responded with a ridiculous, contorted layup on the Lions' next trip, pulling the deficit to one point again. Albright then called the aforementioned timeout, and Van Pelt was notified of the Arcadia-E'Town result.
“I had a hard time controlling my bladder,” he would later say.
If that news wasn't enough to cause Van Pelt heart palpitations, perhaps Messiah's next possession was: Unhappy with how things were progressing with under 15 seconds to go on the shot clock, Van Pelt called a 30 second timeout, and drew up a set.
It is uncertain if what actually transpired was option number one.
With the clock ticking down toward zeroes, junior Jeremiah Runkle swung the ball to senior Andy Hawk, who was perched five feet outside the three-point arc on the right side. With time to do nothing else, Hawk launched a falling away, 25-footer, with the Lions' Shane Irwin draped all over him.
His shot splashed through the net as the buzzer sounded, setting off an eruption both on the court and in the stands.
It was quickly hushed by Shaeffer, however.
The all-league guard used a ball screen on the right side of the court and canned a pull-up three just nine seconds after Hawk's long ball, again pulling the visitors to a 61-60 deficit with 28 seconds to go.
“It's funny to think about, but the (winner of the) four seed (in the Commonwealth Conference Tournament) came down to the final seconds of our game,” Van Pelt said. “It seems it's always like this in our league.”
Thankfully for Falcons' fans, Messiah would prove its post-season worth on both ends of the court.
Needing to foul to stop the clock, Albright's Shaeffer got his hands on junior Trey Ritzman with 21 seconds to play. A 71.4 percent free throw shooter on the season, Ritzman calmly buried both charity tosses to make it a 63-60 contest. As Shaeffer raced down the court in hopes of making another spectacular play to extend the game, the Falcons' defense trumped him: Shaeffer drove in the lane and looked to kick it back out, but Runkle stepped in front of his pass, collecting Messiah's 14th steal of the evening.
Runkle was immediately fouled with 15 seconds to play, but missed the first of two. Following an Albright timeout, Runkle missed again, and the visitors had one final chance to tie things up.
Shaeffer was able to get off a three-point attempt, but it went begging. The Lions' Derek Hall grabbed the offensive board just before time expired, and his buzzer-beating layup was mathematically insufficient. Messiah had survived — and with help from Arcadia — advanced into the league's post-season tournament for the third straight season.
“We talked a lot about last games,” Van Pelt said of his pre-game message. “We talked about, how, win or lose, you always remember your last game of the year, or your last game on your own court, no matter what sport it is, or how old you are. We just wanted to focus on making today special. Win or lose, we wanted all of our guys, and especially our seniors, to remember this and have fun.”
In both the beginning and the end, it was plenty of fun for Van Pelt's troops. Hawk was at the forefront of the fiesta, canning three triples in the game's opening four minutes to help Messiah sprint out to a 15-4 lead. A triple from senior classmate Hartman made it a 24-9 game with 10:34 to go in the first half, while a backdoor layup from Trey Ritzman — off a nifty assist from Hawk — gave the Falcons their largest lead of the game (31-15) with 3:12 remaining before the half.
Messiah still led by 12 points (52-40) with 9:22 to play off a jumper from freshman Brad Bolen, but it was then that Albright made its slow push back into competitiveness, setting up the memorable conclusion.
Hawk paced Messiah's senior day with a season-high 18 points, going seven of 11 from the floor and four of seven from three-point land. It was the first time since Nov. 18, 2009 that Hawk sniffed 18 points, when he scored the exact same amount before suffering a season-ending ankle injury in a 73-65 win over Eastern University in last year's season-opener. Runkle, meanwhile, notched his fifth double-double of the year with 16 points and 11 rebounds Satrurday. Senior Tyler Ritzman scored eight and Hartman six.
“As is usually the case, when we shoot the ball well, we give ourselves a chance to win any game we're playing,” said Van Pelt, who watched his club connect on 23 of 50 shots (46 percent). Andy let it fly tonight and a lot of them went in. Our guys really battled today. We had some different guys step up offensively, and that's what a true team is all about. It takes everyone.”
It also took Arcadia. Had Elizabethtown defeated the Knights, the Blue Jays would have been the league's four seed, boasting an 8-6 league record. Instead, the loss put Elizabethtown, Messiah and Albright into a three-way tie for the fourth seed — all with 7-7 conference marks.
Thanks to the fact that Messiah swept E'Town for the first time since the 2006-2007 season, it was the Falcons that had the best record in the three-team tie breaker.
As for Arcadia? It was the Knights' first conference win in the last two full seasons. Arcadia entered its senior day with a 0-27 league record over the past two years.
“We tried to let our guys know that crazier things have happened this week,” Van Pelt said of the Arcadia aid. “I've always thought (Arcadia) would get at least one conference win over the last two years, and I just hoped it wouldn't come against us. This league is extremely balanced. You never know what will happen on any given night.”
At least fans now know who and when Messiah will be playing in the upcoming conference tournament, as the fourth-seeded Falcons will travel to top-seeded Alvernia University Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The Crusaders (16-6, 11-3) finished in sole possession of first place during the regular-season, and defeated Messiah by a 72-56 score at their Physical Education Center Jan. 15. Alvernia then hung on for a 58-54 win in Brubaker Feb. 5.
“They've been the best team in the league all season,” Van Pelt said. “Since they lost their leading scorer (Charles Swiggett), I think they've really come together as a team. They defend well, they're unselfish on offense, they're very athletic and they have size. They're good one-on-one defenders. But we've got nothing to lose. We believe that we can go up there and win. We're going to have to play a very good game, but it's the post-season, and that's expected.”
