Grantham, PA - Messiah men's basketball led for most of the game, but had to hold on tight at the end to defeat Arcadia University 75-69 on Saturday evening. The Knights cut the Falcon advantage to three, 67-64, with 1:18 left on the clock, but good defense and free throw shooting down the stretch gave Messiah the hard-fought victory.
 
Rob McWilliams led all scorers with 19 points, while also grabbing four rebounds and three steals. Josh Clippinger had another solid night, recording 17 points and six boards. Neil Murren also dropped in 11 points off the bench for the Falcons.
 
Messiah shot 50% in the first-half, but slipped to 25% in the second, which allowed Arcadia to stay in the game. The Falcons were solid from the charity stripe, going 17-22 (77%) and outrebounded the Knights by a wide margin of 45-28, including 14-5 on the offensive side. That led to 22 second-chance points for the Falcons compared to just six for Arcadia.
 
With their seventh win in the last nine games, Messiah improves to 10-8 on the year and 5-5 in the MAC Commonwealth, while Arcadia fell to 9-10 overall and 4-7 in the conference.
 
The Falcons started hot, jumping out to an 11-2 lead just over four minutes into the game. Clippinger got the scoring started with a layup, followed by a three from Luke Cable. Clippinger then tipped in a McWilliams miss, Logan Long knocked down a jumper from the wing, and Clippinger hit a jumper from the top of the key to give the Falcons a nine-point lead.
 
Arcadia cut the Messiah lead to four, 15-11, at the 13:22 mark of the first-half, before the Falcons went on another run. Cable hit another triple, Sareyka sank a free throw, and McWilliams turned in a fast-break layup and a spectacular reverse layup to bring the score to 23-13 with just over 10 minutes to go in the half.
 
The Knights fought right back, going on an 11-2 run to trail by just one point, 25-24. Clippinger would put an end to the run on a great pick-and-roll play with Long, as he finished with a wide-open, two-handed dunk at the 6:22 mark.
 
Messiah and Arcadia traded baskets the remainder of the half, and the Falcons took a 41-36 lead into the break. Two Falcons, McWilliams and Clippinger, were already in double figures, with 14 and 12, respectively. Evan Slone had 12 points on 6-8 shooting for the Knights.
 
Arcadia tied the game up at 46 five minutes into the second-half on a layup by Josh Scott, before taking a brief 48-46 lead on a Will Derr layup. Rob McWilliams tied the game right back up on the next possession with a driving layup, and then the Falcons took back the lead when Neil Murren drove to the basket, got fouled, and still got the ball to roll in the basket for the old-fashioned three-point play. He sank the free throw to give Messiah a three-point lead, 51-48, at the 13:38 mark.
 
Nate Eberle came off the bench to make two clutch triples over the next five minutes, pushing the Falcon advantage to eight, 60-52, with just over eight minutes to go in the game. Messiah still led by nine at the 4:13 mark, before two free throws apiece for Kyle Reilly and Ryan Kelley along with a layup by Slone cut the difference to just three, 65-62 with two and a half minutes to play.
 
However, the Falcons would go 10-12 from the free throw line and get enough stops on defense in the rest of the contest to take the 75-69 victory.
 
Kyle Reilly led the Knights with 17 points and two blocks, while Evan Slone had a solid game with 16 points and eight rebounds.
 
The Falcons take the court next on Wednesday, Feb. 1 when they travel to Stevenson University for an 8:00 p.m. tip.