Box Score
by Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com
Reading, PA - The Messiah women's basketball team captured their 11th consecutive victory, crushing Albright College (5-14, 1-7) by a score of 84-43. The Falcons shot more than twice as well as Albright College (56.5% to 24.6%), and the game marked the fifth time in the last six games that the Falcons' defense has allowed fewer than 50 points.
"We obviously played extremely well on both ends of the floor for the whole game," said Messiah head coach
Mike Miller. "We were extremely focused just coming off the bus and we were good to go from the very beginning."
The Falcons trailed only once in the game-- after Albright hit a shot clock-beating three-pointer on their first possession. From there, Messiah scored the next seven points, highlighted by a three from junior
Nicky Hess, to take a 7-3 lead. Hess added another three-pointer a few minutes later to increase Messiah's lead to 16-6. The Falcons scored 13 of the next seven points to lead 29-10 and, after Albright hit a three to cut the lead to 29-13, Messiah scored another seven straight points to take a commanding 36-13 lead.
At halftime, the Falcons led 45-18, led by junior
Dori Gyori's 15 points on 6-7 shooting.
"We passed the ball extremely well," said Miller. "We were able to keep finding Dori on the inside, getting her around the basket. She kept knocking them down."
Messiah hit 17-34 shots (50 percent), plus 8-9 from the foul line in the first half. They forced 16 turnovers, turning them into 22 points. On defense, the Falcons held Albright to just 5-23 shooting (21.7 percent).
The Falcons continued their dominance in the second half, using a 9-0 run-- including seven points by junior forward
Katelyn Vanderhoff, to take a 56-21 lead.
Each player on the Falcons ended up playing at least five minutes in the second half, courtesy of Messiah's enormous lead. They still shot 18-28 (64.3 percent) and held Arcadia to just 9-34 shooting (26.5 percent).
"We ran our offense extremely well in the second half," Miller said. "Kate was getting a lot of shots and she made them all."
Miller wasn't exaggerating. For the game, Vanderhoff led the Falcons with 19 points on a perfect 9-9 shooting. She also grabbed five boards, dished out four assists, and collected two steals in just 19 minutes of play. Gyori finished with 17 points and five rebounds in 19 minutes, while classmate
Kira Maier collected 10 points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 27 minutes. Sophomore
Chelsea Danel added nine points off the bench and Hess scored eight.
The Falcons haven't just been winning in the last month; they've been crushing their opponents. Three of the victories have come by at least 40 points, and nine of the 12 have come by double-digits. The average score for Messiah in the last 11 games has been 70-47.
Messiah (16-3, 7-1) will take their 11-game winning streak into a home conference game against Lebanon Valley (17-2, 8-0) on Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m, a game that could easily determine first place in the Commonwealth Conference. The Falcons look to avenge a 54-47 loss against LVC in December.
