Grantham, PA – No. 22 Messiah College women's basketball team will head to another MAC Commonwealth Championship game after defeating Stevenson 78-55. The Falcons had a dominating performance in the fourth quarter to secure their 24th win of the season.

Gillian Glackin recorded her 11th double-double of the season with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Glackin shot an impressive 8 of 13 from the field. Leah Springer and Kaitlyn Hoff also scored double-digits for the Falcons with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Alecia Rohrer contributed nine points and five boards, while Maci Thornton collected seven points, three steals, and three assists. Kristen Smoluk also scored seven points and dished out five assists and received three steals for Messiah.

Overall the Falcons shot an impressive 27 of 53 (50.9%) from the field, 3 of 5 (60%) from three-point range and 21 of 27 (77.8%) from the charity stripe. Stevenson shot 17 of 50 from the field (34%), 2 of 11 (18.2%) from deep, and 19 of 22 (86.4%) from the line.

Both teams started with lots of energy and came out ready to battle in the MAC Commonwealth semifinal game. Stevenson began with an early 7-4 lead, but Messiah started to pull away by going on a 17-2 run to finish the quarter. Alecia Rohrer initiated that run for the Falcons' after finishing a lay-in off of Kristen Smoluk's pass. A few minutes later, Leah Springer connected back-to-back baskets to give the Falcons an 18-9 point lead. Forward's Rohrer and Glackin finished the quarter with a lay-up and a free throw to give Messiah a 21-9 advantage going into the second. Gillian Glackin led all scorers in the first quarter with eight points.

The Mustangs began to come alive in the second quarter of play. They outscored the Falcons 21-14 and Sara Tarbert collected 14 of the Mustangs' 21 points. The Mustangs started to apply pressure to the Falcons' offense by displaying a full-court press, in which they were able to create nine turnovers in the quarter. Stevenson got as close as two points away from the lead (28-30) but then Kaitlyn Hoff knocked down a pair of free-throws and Glackin scored a tough basket in the paint to give Messiah the 35-30 lead entering halftime.

The third quarter was the closest and most exciting ten minutes of the game, in which the Mustangs outscored the Falcons 14-13. Sara Tarbert continued to lead Stevenson's offense and collected half of their third quarter points. Two and a half minutes into the quarter, the Mustangs tied the ball game up 37-37. Messiah and Stevenson stayed tied for a little over two minutes until the Mustangs pulled ahead, 39-37, after a pair of free-throws. Stevenson seemed to find their rhythm offensively and continued to extend their lead to as many as five points (44-39) with four minutes remaining in the third. Gillian Glackin stepped up big for Messiah by scoring back-to-back baskets to give the Falcons a one-point advantage.  With 30 seconds remaining on the clock, Emily White came off the bench and drained a three-pointer to bring Messiah's lead back up to 48-44 going into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter was all Falcons, outscoring Stevenson 30-11. Messiah was ready to take control of the game and that is what they did. The Falcons went on a 14-2 run in the first five minutes of the final quarter and ended up defeating the Mustangs by a margin of 23 points (78-55). Kaitlyn Hoff collected seven of her 13 points and Maci Thornton collected five of her seven points in the last 10 minutes of play.

Messiah's defensive unit collected 14 steals against Stevenson and they were able to score 30 points off of the 21 turnovers that Stevenson had. Depth once again proved to be a strength of this Falcon squad, in which Messiah's benched outscored Stevenson's 26-0.

Sara Tarbert collected a double-double for the Mustangs scoring 21 points and grabbing 15 boards. Jonaye Curry added 11 points and six steals, while Imani Sanders scored 10 points for Stevenson.

The Falcons will play Albright this Saturday in the MAC Commonwealth Championship. This will be the 14th appearance in the past 18 years that the Falcons have made it to the conference championship game.