Box Score -
Photo Gallery
Grantham, PA - The Messiah Falcons followed up their most incredible defensive performance of the season with a worthy encore-- an 81-34 defeat of Arcadia that stands as the most lopsided win of the season.
It marks the second-straight came the Falcons have allowed just 34 points, following their
51-34 win over Lycoming from earlier in the week. In the Lycoming win, the Falcons didn't allow a point for almost 15 minutes. In Saturday's win, the Falcons did'nt give up a second-half point until 9:16 remained in the game.
But, despite holding a 43-21 lead at the half, Messiah head coach
Mike Miller wasn't pleased with his team's performance-- especially in the latter minutes of the first half.
"We were exceptional in the first eight minutes of the game, but then we kind of lost our edge," said Miller, whose team raced out to an 18-2 lead in the game. "They had 21 points in the first half, 11 at the foul line. We can't be putting them on the foul line quicker than they need to be, and we did just that because of some bad fouls. I got on them a little at halftime about the difference between good and great, and really challenged them. It was the first time I really got on them this year, and you could see their response."
There's little doubt the Knights noticed the response, too.
The Falcons came out in the second half and played as well as they have all season. They embarked on a 28-0 run, which gave them a 61-21 lead and essentially ended the game. Junior
Katelyn Vanderhoff collected 10 of those 28 points, while classmate
Dori Gyori scored eight. Arcadia missed all eight of their shots and turned the ball over nine times over that 10:44 stretch to begin the second half.
Including time at the end of the first half, Messiah's defensive scoreless streak was 11:03. In the aforementioned Lycoming game, it was 14:53.
Perhaps even more impressively, the Falcons did not allow a single made field goal until just 1:56 remained in the game. That ended a streak of 20:31 without allowing a field goal-- more than half the game!
Arcadia collected three made shots from the field at the end of the game, giving them seven for the game. They ended the game shooting just 7-33 (21.2%), the best defensive field-goal percentage allowed by Messiah this season.
"The issue is defense," said Miller. "The we aren't getting it done on defense, we don't feel good about ourselves. We have a scouting report and we need an edge. Our team gets to a point where we're so engrossed in the game that we don't look at the scoreboard. That's our approach. Together, we all took care of business in the second half. Thirteen different players contributed to 13 defensive points."
The defensive balanced showed up on the other end of the court, too. The Falcons saw 11 different players score a point, with Vanderhoff leading the way with 18 points in 21 minutes. She also collected six boards, four assists and five steals, giving her 13 steals in the last two games.
Junior
Dori Gyori scored 17 points in 17 minutes, to go with seven boards and three steals. Sophomore
Taylor Miller added 10 points, while juniors
Nicky Hess and
Kira Maier scored seven and six points, respectively. The Falcons' 81 points are their most since an 85-70 thrashing of Widener University in the Commonwealth Conference Semi-Finals on February 24th, 2010.
The Falcons' 33 made field goals matched Arcadia's 33 attempts, while Messiah committed just 14 turnovers. Messiah forced 36 turnovers, collecting 21 steals as a team.
With the loss, Arcadia falls to 3-14 on the season, including 0-6 in the Commonwealth.
The Falcons collected their ninth straight victory to improve to 14-3 for the season, plus a 5-1 record in the conference.
Their next game is on Wednesday, January 25th, at 6:00 against Alvernia University (7-8, 2-4). The Falcons are looking for their first double-digit winning streak since they won 15 in a row in the 2008-2009 season.
