San Juan, Puerto Rico - Jen Fairbanks' three-pointer late in the fourth quarter broke a tie and Messiah led the rest of the way in a hard-fought and contested 56-50 win over Vassar College on Sunday afternoon. The win moved the Falcons to 10-0 on the year while Vassar fell to 3-5. The 10 wins for Messiah set a program record for victories to start a season.

Maci Thornton tied for a game-high with 16 points, and Gillian Glackin collected a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Alecia Rohrer also scored a season-high 14 points for the Falcons, who were held to a season-low for points scored. Nevertheless, Messiah also held an opponent to 50-or-less points for the third-straight game; Messiah has also not given up 60 points to an opponent since their season-opening 86-66 win over Johns Hopkins.

The Falcons' win over the Brewers was started with a 14-5 output in the first quarter, though they quickly found themselves in a dogfight after Vassar drew to within 23-19 at the half. The nine point quarter for Messiah was the result of just 3-11 shooting from the field as Vassar climbed back. In the third quarter the Brewers soon tied the Falcons, 31-31, and went up by three points on a shot from beyond the arc by Ariella Rosenthal. She went on to finish with a team-high 16 points.

Messiah recovered from that deficit with an 8-4 run to end the period and enter the final quarter leading by a single point, 39-38. With just over five minutes left to play and game tied 42-42, a transition bucket by Rohrer gave the Falcons the lead once again, but moments later it was 48-48. That's when Fairbanks drilled a huge three-pointer to give Messiah the lead for good as the Falcons also hit clutch free-throws down the stretch to hold off the Brewers.

Thornton went 9-12 from the line herself in the win as Messiah went 21-30 as a team from the charity stripe. Vassar went a perfect 14-14 from the line in their solid effort, but their 16-54 (30%) showing from the field wasn't enough to keep pace. Messiah shot just just 32% (16-50) themselves in what was a somewhat sloppy game for both teams.

The Falcons will now be off for a day before playing John Carroll on Tuesday in the final game of their Puerto Rico trip.