Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA - If there was one thing you could hold against the Falcons this season, it was their 0-4 record in overtime contests. With their dramatic win over Lycoming on Wednesday night, you can scratch that criticism off the list.
Sophomore
Brad Bolen banked in a runner from the right side with just under two seconds remaining in overtime as Messiah edged Lycoming for a dramatic 59-57 win. The victory came after the Falcons lost a 10-point lead in the second half and found themselves needing to tie the game to send it into the extra session.
With the overtime period starting with both teams knotted at 50-50, the Falcons came back from a 55-50 deficit before Bolen's game winner moved them to 9-2 in the Commonwealth this season.
"I think it was one of those games where (Lycoming) had more to lose than we had to win," said Messiah head coach
Rick Van Pelt, commenting on Lycoming's attempt to tie the Falcons for first place in the conference. "Still, it was a big win for us in the regional-ranking standpoint and in the conference play standpoint, but they're the team right behind us and it gives us a two-game cushion on them with three games to play. Any tiebreaker with Lycoming we would win."
The Falcons dominated on both sides of the ball in the first four minutes, climbing out to a 7-0 lead behind five points from sophomore
David Fernandez. Lycoming hit a layup at the 15:51 mark, which proved to be their only points in the first 10 minutes of the game. Over that stretch, the Falcons held Lycoming to just 1-13 on field goal attempts.
But the Falcons hit just 4-19 of their own attempts, allowing Lycoming to climb back into the game late in the first half.
A 12-12 tie with six minutes remaining in the first half turned into a 23-15 halftime lead for the Falcons behind a trio of three-point shots from junior
Derek Mosley.
"Lycoming is a long, athletic team and you don't usually run a lot of the stuff that you would try to execute," Van Pelt said. "We knew that we were going to have to take care of the basketball and we were going to have to make plays against their running, jumping, and trapping. From an offensive standpoint, we just wanted to get a good shot in each possession. We wanted to move the basketball and take care of it."
Lycoming came out stronger in the second half, scoring 10 of the half's first 14 points to cut the Falcons' lead to 27-25 with 15:39 left in the game. They took a 33-32 lead with 12:06 left, their first lead of the game. The teams then traded baskets, with the Falcons keeping pace with Lycoming even with starting center
Jeremiah Runkle spending the majority of the half on the bench with foul trouble.
Lycoming held a 50-49 lead with under a minute to play, with the Falcons tying the game at 50-50 on a free throw by Runkle with 34 seconds remaining. With Lycoming turning the ball over on the next possession, Messiah sophomore
David Fernandez was unable to hit a runner on the Falcons' last attempt. An attempt by Runkle to tip in Fernandez's miss also went over the rim.
"We ran a little bit of a curl action and David got the ball and he attacked," Van Pelt said. "Jeremiah almost had a tip-in at the buzzer."
Now in the overtime session, the Falcons found themselves down 55-50 behind a three-pointer from Ihsaan Davis and a layup from Mike Bradley. At this point, it looked as if the Falcons could be headed for their fifth overtime loss in as many games.
But the Falcons refused to back down. Mosley sunk a three with 2:34 remaining and Bolen added a three of his own at the 2:01 mark to give Messiah a 56-55 lead. Fernandez added a free throw on two attempts for a two-point advantage, but Lycoming tied the game at 57 with two free throws.
Fernandez missed a pair of free offerings in the final minute, but Lycoming missed a jumper with just 16 seconds remaining. Mosley grabbed the rebound and outlet the ball to the right side, where it moved up the sideline to a streaking Fernandez. Fernandez's score in the open court was waved off as Van Pelt was signaling for a timeout before realizing his team's opportunity to gain the lead.
"We looked like we were in a little bit of trouble in the backcourt," Van Pelt said, commenting on the Warriors' defense on the play. "I didn't like the way we looked before we rotated and David ended up getting a wide-open shot. It was just one of those things where the timeout came at a time when a guy broke wide open. I tried to call it off but I was just too late."
Still, the Falcons had the ball with just under eight seconds remaining.
"Do I want to tell you that everything went as planned?" said Van Pelt, commenting on the game's final play. "Yes, I do. But it didn't go that way. It broke down a little bit, and Bolen stepped up and made a big play."
The end result though was a game-winning runner off the backboard from Bolen with just 1.9 seconds remaining.
"He just flat out made a play,” continued Van Pelt. “He just went and scored the basket. Gutsy play by him and I'm glad it went in. It was a gutsy take."
Lycoming threw up a last-second desperation that went wide of the rim, and the Falcons escaped with a hard-fought, well-earned overtime victory.
Almost equally as impressive, they managed to survive overtime despite both Runkle and Fernandez playing the entire period with four fouls.
"We were very leery about even starting them in that overtime," Van Pelt said. "But they did a nice job and Lycoming wasn't able to take advantage of it."
Throughout the game, the Falcons shot just 19-59 (32.2 percent) on field goals and 13-25 on free throws (52 percent). But they played well defensively, holding Lycoming to 18-56 on field goals (32.1 percent), including 3-15 on three pointers. They also won the rebounding battle (48 to 37) and committed just 13 turnovers.
"We probably could have helped ourselves a little if we could have just shot a little better from the free throw line," Van Pelt said. "(Sophomore)
Taylor Groff hit some really big clutch free throws in the second half. Taylor hadn't played a ton and he was able to step in and knock down some really big shots in clutch situations."
Mosley led the Falcons with 16 points and 12 rebounds (six offensive) in 40 minutes of action. Fernandez scored 15, collecting six boards, three steals, and three assists. Bolen added nine points off the bench, including the biggest shot of the day, and Groff added eight points in 16 minutes. Runkle scored five and grabbed nine rebounds, and junior
Christyan DeVan dished out four assists.
For Lycoming, Mike Bradley led the team with 19 points and eight rebounds in 38 minutes.
The loss for the Warriors drops them to 7-4 in the Commonwealth, and 17-5 overall.
The victory improves Messiah to an overall record of 15-6 for the season. They will play again on Saturday, February 11, at Arcadia University at 3:00 p.m.
