GRANTHAM, Pa. – Messiah men's basketball led for nearly the entire game Wednesday night, shutting down Lebanon Valley College's high-powered offense knocking down timely shots in a 74-69 win. The 69 points scored was the second-lowest output by the Dutchmen all season, far below their average of 82.6 points per game.
 
It was a huge conference victory for the Falcons, vaulting them into a tie with Lebanon Valley and Albright for second-place in the MAC Commonwealth. With tonight's win and last Saturday's thriller over Albright, Messiah currently holds the tiebreaker over both teams.
 
The Falcons are now 10-6 overall and 5-3 in the conference, while LVC falls to 11-6 on the year and 5-3 in the conference.
 
By the Numbers
Colin Sareyka led Messiah in scoring for the tenth time this year, notching 18 points and dishing out three assists. Matt Glogowski continued his impressive performance as of late, pouring in 16 points and pulling down seven rebounds. Matt Hess and Nate Eberle recorded 13 points apiece, and Josh Darville grabbed 11 boards.
 
The Falcons shot just 39.7% (25-of-63) from the field compared to 50.9% (29-of-57) for the Dutchmen, but made up for it from beyond the arc, shooting at a rate of 33.3% (8-of-24) to the LVC's paltry 18.8% (3-of-16). Messiah dominated on the glass to the tune of 42-30, including 15 offensive rebounds to just five for LVC.
 
Early Advantage
After two buckets apiece from both teams in the first three minutes tied the score at four, Neil Murren drained a triple from the wing, giving Messiah a lead that would hold for the remainder of the game. After a layup by Chris Anderson cut the advantage to one, Messiah went on a 10-2 run over the next three minutes, bookended by threes from Matt Glogowski and Nate Eberle.
 
The Dutchmen managed to score the next six points to make it 17-14 in favor of Messiah, but the Falcons countered with another run, scoring nine unanswered points to go up by 12, 26-14, with 8:34 remaining in the first half. The run was capped by one of the wildest moments of the game, as Eberle could not finish on three consecutive layups, getting his own rebound on the first two, before Glogowski cleaned up the third miss with a an old-fashioned three-point play that got the Messiah crowd to their feet.
 
The lead would remain 12 going into the break, as the Falcons held the Dutchmen to just 27 first-half points.
 
Hang on Tight
Messiah's defense stood tall throughout the second-half, as there were many times that it seemed like LVC was about to make a run, but a critical steal or brilliant double-team to force a bad shot thwarted the Dutchmen effort time and time again.
 
Holding a seven-point lead with 14:28 to play, Messiah went on a 6-0 run that consisted of three impressive shots, beginning with a slick post move from Glogowski. Sareyka followed with an incredible one-handed tip-in, as the 5'11" guard rose above everyone else to lay it in from the left side. Neil Murren capped the small run by draining a jumper with a hand in his face to just barely beat the shot clock and give the Falcons a 54-41 advantage with 11:13 to play.
 
The Dutchmen made a slight comeback attempt near the end, as they cut the Messiah lead to 65-58 with a minute to play, but superb free throw shooting from Matt Hess (6-of-6) and Colin Sareyka (3-of-4) over the final 60 seconds sealed the victory for the Falcons.
 
Next Up
Messiah will look for its fourth-straight win on Saturday as they host the University of Valley Forge in a nonconference make-up game. Opening tip is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
 
After that, the Falcons resume conference action with a huge tilt against Lycoming College, who currently holds a two-game lead atop the MAC Commonwealth and is ranked No. 10 in the country.