SCRANTON, Pa. - The Messiah women's basketball team suffered their first loss of the season this afternoon falling to the University of Scranton 65-60 in overtime. Maci Thornton led all scorers with 14 points going 5-9 (55%) from the field. Alecia Rohrer scored 13 points and Kaitlyn Hoff had 12 points. The Falcons played close but struggled from the field shooting just 24-66 (36%) and were out-rebounded by the Royals 46-27.

Messiah and Scranton played pretty evenly matched in the first half with just a one-point advantage 29-28 for the Falcons heading into halftime. With the score 6-5 early Hannah Brown made a three-pointer at the 4:18 mark of the first quarter to give Messiah a four point lead 9-5. Later with the Falcons ahead 12-8, the Royals went on an 8-0 scoring run to finish out the quarter and take a 16-12 lead.
 
Scranton held a lead for a good part of the second quarter but a layup by Jen Fairbanks at the 4:02 mark put Messiah back on top 23-22. With the half coming to a close and the Falcons trailing 28-24, they finished the half on a 5-0 scoring run with a layup by Leah Springer and three-pointer by Maci Thornton to lead at the break 29-28.
 
The third quarter play was a gridlock between both teams as neither one really built up a big lead. With Scranton leading 34-31, a couple defensive stops and then a jumper by Springer and fast break layup by Becca Isaac gave Messiah the lead once again 35-34. Not long after, Springer hit a shot from beyond the arc to extend the Falcons advantage 38-34 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The momentum stayed with Messiah to begin the fourth quarter as they continue their 9-0 scoring run as Thornton made a layup at the 9:11 mark to go up 40-34. The Royals responded by going on a run of their own at the 3:23 mark Bridgette Mann knocked down a shot to give them the lead 43-42.  Things got exciting towards the end with Messiah trailing by four 48-44 with under a minute to play, Kaitlyn Hoff hit a big three-pointer with 26 seconds left cut the lead 48-47.
 
Then after Scranton hit two from behind the charity stripe, the Falcons came down and again Hoff drained a huge shot to tie the game at 50 with just two seconds left on the clock. Scranton didn't get a shot off and so overtime was needed to determine a winner and unfortunately Messiah struggled some in the overtime period. The Royals got off to a strong start and led by eight 58-52 with 2:17 remaining but the Falcons kept chipping away and pulled within two 60-58 when Alecia Rohrer made a layup with 32 seconds left. However, Scranton's early lead in overtime and going 5-6 from the free throw line towards the end was the determining factor as they went on to win 65-60.

Messiah is now 9-1 on the year and will have some time off before traveling to Florida for the Land of Magic Basketball Classic where they will play two games. They face Western New England University on Dec. 28 at 5:00 p.m. and then Wellesley College on Dec. 29th at 1:00 p.m.