St. Mary's City, MD - The Messiah women's basketball team won the Dan Greene Memorial Invitational after defeating the host school St. Mary's College of Maryland, 74-43 Saturday afternoon. The Falcons shot 46.3% from the field and 81.8% from the free-throw line.

Jen Fairbanks and Kaitlyn Hoff led all scorers with 15 points each, Alecia Rohrer contributed 13 points, and Gillian Glackin picked up her first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Falcons struggled to find their rhythm in the first quarter and were down nine points (13-22) heading into the second.  Things started to turn around when Alecia Rohrer hit back-to-back buckets and Leah Springer scored a layup to cut the lead down to four.  With under four minutes remaining in the second quarter, Gillian Glackin came up with a big defensive play, a block and a rebound, which led to a jumper from Kristen Smoluk in the paint to take the lead, 28-27.  The Falcons would finish the first half with an eight-point lead, 38-30. 
 
Messiah started the third quarter strong, with an and-one play by Rohrer, the Falcons continued to increase the lead and control the tempo of the game. Midway through the quarter, Kaitlyn Hoff had a fast break layup to put the Falcons up 18 points over St. Mary's, this was the Falcons' biggest lead of the night thus far.  Messiah went into the fourth quarter up 16 points (58-42) and did not let up.  In the second half Messiah out-rebounded St. Mary's (21-19) and only allowed them to score 13 points in the 20 minutes of play.

Head coach Mike Miller was very impressed with his team's efforts and stated, "We seem to be a team that keeps getting better on both ends as the game continues."  The Falcons led in a majority of the statistical categories against St. Mary's, including 14 steals and 29 points off turnovers. "Our guards were tenacious all game on both ends. As the game progressed things became a little easier. Our depth also continues to develop and has a major impact on each game," commented Miller. Messiah also led in points off the bench 28-5, depth is one of Messiah's strengths and that has shown through the past three games. 
 
With taking home the victory in the championship game on Saturday, two Falcons were recognized for their outstanding play. Maci Thornton was named MVP of the tournament and Hoff was named to the all-tournament team.
 
The Falcons will be back in action at home on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Brubaker Auditorium against MAC Freedom opponent, Eastern University.