GRANTHAM, Pa. - Messiah men's basketball used a 17-4 run midway through the second-half to pull away from Alvernia University and defeat the Golden Wolves 77-66 on Saturday afternoon.
 
With the win, the Falcons improve to 6-3 on the year and 2-1 in the MAC Commonwealth. Alvernia falls to 2-6 overall and 0-4 in the conference.
 
Colin Sareyka led all scorers in the game with 25 points and nearly had a double-double, finishing with eight assists. Nate Eberle and Matt Glogowski were also in double figures with 11 apiece, and five different Falcons had at least six rebounds as Messiah dominated Alvernia on the glass, 47-28.
 
Messiah had one of their best games of the season from the charity stripe, going 19-of-24 (79%) to help hold off any comeback attempt by the Golden Wolves down the stretch.
 
Hot Start
Messiah jumped out to an 18-9 lead early thanks to 10 quick points from leading scorer Sareyka. A few moments later, a Mike Miller triple cut the lead back down to three with just under eight minutes to play in the first-half. However, Sareyka made a layup and hit a pair of free throws to go with a layup from Matt Glogowski to push the Falcon lead back up to eight, 27-19, with 5:33 remaining in the opening period.
 
Golden Wolves Bite Back
Alvernia responded with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes spurred by guards Keon Taylor (4) and Mike Miller (6) to take their first lead of the game, 29-27, at the 2:20 mark. That was all the Golden Wolves would score before the break, Kyle Krout and Sareyka put an end to the offensive drought for Messiah with back-to-back triples to give the Falcons a 33-29 advantage going into halftime.
 
What A Run
The first ten minutes of the second-half was a back-and-forth affair, as the Messiah lead never dropped below three or climbed above nine over that stretch.
 
Beginning at the 10:20 mark, though, Messiah made seven of their next nine shots (both misses were gathered off the offensive glass) for a 17-4 run that put the Falcons up 67-51 with just over seven minutes left to play. It started with four-straight makes from beyond the arc by four different players – Sareyka, Neil Murren, Eberle, and Glogowski – and finished with a beautiful and-one from Sareyka to push the lead to 16.
 
As mentioned, great free-throw shooting down the stretch (notably, Josh Darville going 5-of-7 in the final four minutes) kept the lead in double-digits for the rest of the game, and the Falcons went on to win by a final score of 77-66.
 
Next Up
Messiah will next head to the Hoops in Hawaii Holiday Classic in Honolulu, HI on Dec. 18 and 19 to play games against Pacific University and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The Falcons will not return home until Jan. 8, when they host the University of Valley Forge at 7:00 p.m.