Box Score -
Photo Gallery
Grantham, PA - The Messiah Falcons avenged their only Commonwealth Conference loss of the season on Wednesday night, defeating Lebanon Valley College (LVC) 57-51. In physical, defense-focused battle, the Falcons held LVC to just 16-53 on field goals (30.2 percent).
The Falcons trailed 10-3 early in the game, but fought back to take a 13-12 lead. It would be a lead they wouldn't relinquish for the remainder of the game. They led 29-20 at halftime, highlighted by a 7-0 run to end the first half. LVC did not score a point in the final five minutes of the first half.
For much of the second half, the Falcons maintained four- or six-point lead. LVC cut the lead to 43-41 with just 6:06 remaining but the Falcons scored seven in a row to take a 50-41 lead with 3:46 left to play. After LVC managed to cut the lead to 50-47, the Falcons went on to win 57-51.
"I think that we defended really well—except for Danny Brooks," said Messiah's head coach
Rick Van Pelt. "We did not have an answer for him, and he was really good tonight. We had a hard time stopping him.”
Brooks, who averages 22 points per game, scored 26 points on 10-14 shooting.
“Fortunately we held (LVC guard) Joe Meehan to 2-17 shooting, and (LVC guard) Jordan Stewart to 2-11 shooting,” continued Van Pelt. “And (LVC) only scored two points off the bench. We just defended really well, and covered up our lack of sharpness on the offensive end.”
The Falcons' game plan coming in was to focus on the “big three” of the Dutchmen: Joe Meehan, a consensus preseason All-American, Danny Brooks, the Commonwealth's leading scorer, and Jordan Stewart, who averages 13 per game.
The Falcons struggled against Brooks, but their plan worked to perfection against Meehan and Stewart.
Junior
Christyan DeVan did a sensational job defensively on Meehan, who finished the game shooting just 2- 17. He also hit two foul shots, giving him a combined six points in 40 minutes of play, noticeably below his season average of 18 points per game.
"I think one of the things is that we were able to control was the tempo," Van Pelt said. "We did not let him (Meehan) get a lot of fast-break opportunities. We kept him out of the open court where he likes to make plays."
Stewart scored nine on just 2-11 shooting. He and Meehan combined for four field goals in 28 attempts, an anemic 14.3 percent from the field.
"The thing that is helping us is we're defending tough," Van Pelt said. "We're really doing a good job defensively. It's good to see."
As a team, LVC connected on just 16-53 field goals (30.2 percent), one of the best defensive totals by the Falcons this season.
"One of our big goals was to keep them off the foul line," said Van Pelt. "We didn't want to get out and pressure and give them opportunities to attack. They still got to the foul line 22 times, but we limited the damage that could have been done in the full-court."
On offense, the Falcons were led by sophomore
David Fernandez's who scored 16 points. Fernandez grabbed four boards and collected four blocked shots. Junior
Derek Mosley posted a double-double, scoring 12 points and tallying 10 rebounds. Senior
Jeremiah Runkle and sophomore
Brad Bolen each scored nine points with six and seven rebounds, respectively.”
"We definitely need to do a better job of being aggressive and attacking the basket," said Van Pelt, reflecting on his team's half-court offense. "We took 16 threes, which isn't really too many—but we need to be a little more aggressive going to basket."
Although the Falcons won 57-51, they were outscored in the second half and allowed LVC to cut the lead to just three in the final minutes before scoring seven points in the last 2:25 to essentially seal the victory.
"I don't think our decision making in this game down was great," said Van Pelt. "We've had games where we made great decisions down the stretch and we've been able to run the clock out and make teams foul us. We needed the clock to run out today and we put them to the foul line. If you're going to be really good, you cannot make those kinds of mistakes."
Nevertheless, the victory was Messiah's 10th in a row— the longest in at least 25 years according to Van Pelt. The Falcons improved to 14-5, including 8-1 in the conference.
They will take their double-digit winning streak into an away game against Widener University on Saturday, February 4th at 3:00 p.m.
