La Plume, PA - The Messiah Falcons men's basketball team weathered a late run by Keystone to edge the Giants 84-81 and open the 2015-16 season 2-0. The Falcons led by as many as 11 points in the final three minutes, but Keystone went on a 11-3 run to close out the game but it wasn't enough as the Falcons held on for the three-point victory.

Messiah jumped out to an early 4-0 start thanks to two Geoff Boyle layups, but much like last night, the Falcons' opponents countered with an early run to take a lead. Today it was the Giants going on a 7-0 to nab a 7-4 lead. After the Keystone run, things began to stabilize in the contest. For the next nine minutes neither team held a lead of more than three-points. Messiah changed that with a layup by Willie Hope with 8:34 remaining in the half. Hope then stole the ball from Keystone's Eric Hardaway on the ensuing possession and found Meredith in transition for a three that gave Messiah a 28-22 lead with just over eight minutes remaining in the half.
 
The Falcons grew their lead to as many as eight after Micah Brown completed a three point-play with 37 seconds remaining in the half. Keystone hit two free throws to end the half cutting Messiah's lead to 39-33.
 
Messiah played the majority of the first-half without Geoff Boyle. The senior collected his second-foul just five minutes into the game and was sat out the final 15 minutes of the half. As a result, Boyle collected his game-high 20 points playing only 17 minutes in the contest.
 
The first five minutes after the break were all Keystone. The Giants went on a 13-6 run to grab a 46-45 lead – their first lead of the game since it was 9-8 with 16 minutes remaining in the first-half. Messiah promptly responded with Luke Cable hitting a three with an assist to Josh Clippinger to take back the lead.
 
After Cable hit that three with 14:44 remaining, Messiah held the lead the rest of the way. The Falcons' largest lead of the game was a 12-point edge, which they held three different times inside the final six minutes. It wasn't all smooth sailing for the visiting Falcons.
 
The Falcons led by 11 with 2:20 remaining but the Giants did not go down quietly. Keystone finished the game on an 11-3 run that was highlighted by four points from Eric Hardaway and three points from Tyreek Peeples.
 
With nine seconds left and the Falcons leading by two, Luke Cable had a chance to ice the game with two free throws, but Cable missed the second and gave the Giants a chance to tie the game with a three at the horn. Peeples' three missed and the Falcons escaped with an 84-81 victory.
 
As mentioned, Boyle led four Falcons in double-figures with 20 points. Micah Brown (19 points), Jonah Meredith (14), and Luke Cable (10) joined Boyle. Meredith and Boyle each grabbed a team-high eight rebounds while Cable dished out a career-high nine assists in the win.
 
Messiah shot and impressive 50.0% from the field (32-64) and 35.7% from downtown (5-14) in the contest.
 
Messiah will new take the floor next Friday, Nov. 20 at home in the TownePlace Suites Tip-Off tournament against Lancaster Bible College. The Falcons and Blazers will tip-off at 8:00 p.m. in the second game of the day following a neutral site contest between New Jersey City and Franklin & Marshall at 6:00 p.m.
 
The winners of those two games will play on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the Championship Game and the losers will square off in the Consolation Game beginning at 1:00 p.m.