Box Score
Annville, PA — The monkey is finally off the Dutchmen's collective back.
After meeting up with Messiah four times in the Commonwealth Conference Tournament — and watching the Falcons win eight of the last 11 league championships — Lebanon Valley College at long last knocked off their heated rivals, taking a 51-33 decision in Saturday's Commonwealth Championship.
It was LVC's first-ever win over Messiah in the post-season, and first-ever league title.
The hosts used a 28-5 run over 17:20 of game clock to blow things open, turning a 13-8 Messiah lead into a 36-18 advantage of their own, never looking back at a sun-flooded, LVC Gymnasium.
“Lebanon Valley is a really good team,” said Messiah head coach Mike Miller. “Their seniors were phenomenal today, and they deserve all the credit. They were better than us today.”
That wasn't necessarily the case at the game's outset, as Messiah (19-7) took a 5-2 lead off a three ball from freshman Taylor Miller three and a half minutes in. When classmate Chelsea Danel missed a three, got her own rebound and scored a put back layup with eight minutes elapsed, the Falcons led 9-3.
Sophomore Dori Gyori scored a layup with 9:35 to go in the first half, and Miller's club was out-hitting LVC 13-8 in a defensive slugfest.
But that's when it all turned to mush for the visitors.
A shot-clock beating three-pointer from the Dutchmen's Liz Borgia tied the game on LVC's next possession and, following a Messiah turnover, Lebanon Valley's Tierny Hiltz buried a triple in the corner with a hand in her face.
Lebanon Valley (25-2) led by a 14-13 score, and would never lose its lead.
Misses on 10 of Messiah's final 11 first-half shots from the floor — including five turnovers — helped the Dutchmen slide to a 26-15 lead at the intermission, and things would only get worse from there: Miller's club was off on four of its first five field goal attempts in the second half, as Lebanon Valley's lead grew to 36-18.
A jumper from junior Tremaine Simmons stopped the bleeding momentarily with 12:15 to go, but the damage was done: Messiah had scored just five points in just under 18 minutes of game time — a statistic too ruinous for recovery.
“We started off so well, especially defensively,” Miller said. “I thought that we were going to be battling the whole way through. But we just didn't score. I thought their two threes they hit in the first half really energized LVC. Those shots got them going, and we defended both of them really well. We missed some open shots, and it kind of snowballed.”
The misses continued to pile up for Messiah, as the Falcons would go on to hit on just 13 of 45 total shots on the afternoon (28.9 percent), while hitting just three of 18 from downtown (18.8 percent). Those numbers were the club's most futile since — perhaps not ironically — a 32-46 loss to Lebanon Valley Jan. 19, when the team scored on just 13 of its 41 attempts (31.7 percent).
“LVC is long across the board and great defensively,” Miller said. “They changed a lot of our shots today. I thought we battled hard on the boards and defensively, but we struggled on the offensive end. They had a lot to do with that.”
As making baskets continued to be an issue, Messiah never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way, with Lebanon Valley notching its largest lead (51-31) with just 13 seconds to play. A buzzer-beating jumper from sophomore Nicky Hess helped cut the final difference to 18.
That bucket was Hess' only field goal of the game, a stark contrast to the six she made — en route to a game-high 18 points — in Messiah's 59-55 win over LVC in the very same building just two and a half weeks earlier. On Saturday, no Falcon scored in double-figures, as Gyori's nine points and Miller's six led an anemic scoring column.
Three players knocked in at least 11 points for the hosts, however, led by Hoover's 15 to go with six assists. The diminutive point guard earned Commonwealth Tournament Most Valuable Player honors as a result, averaging 12.5 points, eight assists and five rebounds in the Dutchmen's two post-season contests.
“Hoover was phenomenal,” Miller said. “There's a reason she was the conference player of the year, and we'll be happy to see her graduate. She's a really special kid. I'm glad to see success happen to such a class act.”
Messiah must now wait and see if it will earn an at-large berth into the upcoming NCAA Tournament — a road the program has taken four times before. The 2011 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championships Selection Show will be broadcast live on NCAA.com Monday at 3 p.m. EST, and Miller said his team will gather to watch it, just like everyone else.
“We're a bubble team,” he said. “Our strength of schedule was rated the toughest in (the Mid-Atlantic) region, so that helps us. But it will depend on what happens around the rest of the nation and how many upsets happen in the other conference tournaments.”
The Falcons' last at-large bid came in 2008-2009 where, after falling to Widener University in the league semi-finals, the team was selected to host NCAA First-Second Round play a week later. Perhaps the most famous at-large team to ever come out of Messiah was back in 2000-2001, where the Falcons danced all the way to the NCAA Division III National Championship game.
In that season's Commonwealth Conference Championship, Messiah lost to Elizabethtown College by 24 points.
“It's great to be old, because I have a lifetime of experience to draw from,” Miller said of the uncertainty surrounding his team's NCAA possibilities. “All I know right now is that I'm really proud of our kids. We've had a great season up to this point. This is an outstanding group of women. I really want to be in the gym come Monday afternoon.”
Check back to GoMessiah.com Monday for the latest surrounding Messiah's post-season chances, or log on to NCAA.com Monday at 3 p.m. to watch the live selection show.
