Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Glenside, PA - Behind a career-high 28 points from junior
Derek Mosley, the Messiah College Falcons edged Arcadia University 62-61 to remain in first place in the Commonwealth Conference. Mosley shot an impressive 9-10 from the floor, including 7-8 from downtown.
"It's always a challenge to hold onto first place in our conference, because there are a number of very good teams," said Messiah head coach
Rick Van Pelt. "When we lost our first conference game of the year (at Lebanon Valley in overtime) we were disappointed because we lost control of our own fate from the start. Fortunately, we've been able to rebound and put ourselves in a good position."
In Saturday's win, each three of both team's baskets were three-pointers. Mosley hit all three of the shots for the Falcons. Messiah switched to a man-to-man after Alvernia managed to keep pace.
"Man-to-man has been our defensive stapel," Van Pelt said. "As a team, their field goal shooting percentage from three-point range is not too high in our conference. We started in a zone to give them a different look, but we switched to man defense when they hit some shots early."
The results were immediately on display, as Messiah held Arcadia scoreless over the next four minutes. Meanwhile, the Falcons scored seven points-- the last three of which came from another deep shot by Mosley.
The Falcons increased their lead to 29-19 at one point, but Arcadia scored nine points in a row to make it a one-point game. The Falcons scored five of the next seven points to take a 34-30 halftime lead.
By the half, the Falcons had already seen three-pointers fall from Mosley, who had five,
Trey Ritzman,
David Fernandez, and
Dan Mosley.
The Falcons continued shooting from deep in the second half, adding two more three-pointers from
Derek Mosley to take a 44-33 lead. Arcadia cut into the lead, making the score 46-43, and then 49-47. But the Falcons scored seven of the next eight points, including four by
David Fernandez, to increase their lead to 56-48 with 6:15 remaining.
Arcadia cut the Falcons' lead to 56-54 with 3:06 left. The teams exchanged baskets until
Derek Mosley sunk a pair of free throws with eight seconds left to give Messiah a 62-58 lead.
Arcadia drove down the court and sunk a three-pointer to cut the lead to 62-61 with five seconds remaining.
On the inbound,
Derek Mosley was fouled and sent to the free throw line to shoot a one-and-one. Mosley missed the front end, and Arcadia had one last opportunity to win the game.
Sophomore
Brad Bolen, who had just entered the game on a defensive substitution, intercepted the Knights' outlet pass to clinch the dramatic one-point Messiah victory.
"We wanted to try to get into the passing lane and pressure the basketball," Van Pelt said, commenting on the final defensive possession. "It's tough to rebound that (missed free throw) shot and get it down the court to get a good shot in four seconds. We wanted to get pressure on the outlet pass. We put Brad and Christyan (DeVan) in the backcourt for this purpose, and Brad made a big play."
Derek Mosley led the Falcons with a career-high 28 points on aforementioned 9-10 shooting. He also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
"(Derek) was really good," Van Pelt said. "Give some credit to the other guys, too, because they found him and were able to get him open for shots. He really carried us tonight just from a scoring perspective."
Fernandez scored 17 on 7-10 shooting, while Ritzman scored eight points. Freshman
Zac Hoy dished out three assists, and
Jeremiah Runkle scored four points while playing great interior defense.
"We wanted to go inside more but they're so athletic," Van Pelt said. "They really pressure the ball and they made it tough for us to get the ball inside to Runkle and others. We always want to get Jeremiah going and get him the ball, but their athleticism really made it tough to do that."
The Falcons won despite losing the rebounding battle 35-23. Most notably, they grabbed just four offensive rebounds while Arcadia grabbed 18.
"They had eight team offensive rebounds and we had zero," Van Pelt said. "We knew rebounding was going to be a key for us. We didn't want to get outscrapped and outhustled for loose balls, and they really beat us up on the offensive boards to do exactly that."
"(Arcadia) has played well with all of the top teams in the league," Van Pelt continued. "But they just haven't been able to get over the hump to earn wins. Free throw shooting really hurt them tonight (10-24). If they made their free throws, it probably woud have been a different game."
With the loss, the Knights fall to 9-14 on the season, including 2-10 in the Commonwealth.
With the win the Falcons (16-6, 10-2) now have a two-game lead in the Commonwealth with just two games to play. Their next game will be on Tuesday night at Alvernia University at 6:00 p.m.
