GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah men's basketball team earned a 80-68 victory on the road Saturday afternoon at Wilkes University. Colin Sareyka scored 30 points in the contest, making this his second game of the season scoring 30 or more points. Nate Eberle scored 17, EJ Porter had 10, and Josh Darville added a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds to help lead the Falcons to the victory. This was Darville's second double-double of the season. After the victory, Messiah improves to 6-1 on the season and will travel to Lycoming College for a 6:00 p.m. matchup with the Warriors on Wednesday night.

Fast Start
After the game was tied 6-6 early on, the Falcons seized the momentum with a 12-2 run to take an 18-8 lead. Nate Eberle had four points during this stretch with Colin Sareyka and Kyle Krout adding three's to the effort. The Colonels answered the Falcons with a 9-2 flurry of their own to cut the lead to just three at 20-17.

The pace slowed down a bit from this point on in the half, as Messiah held a 33-26 lead with 4:00 minutes to play in the first half. Sareyka and Darville led Messiah during the first twenty minutes as they ended with 15 points and 10 points respectively. After the Falcons and Colonels picked up a few more buckets before the half, they went into the break with Messiah holding a 40-30 lead.

Pulling Away
Messiah began the second half much like they began the first half. They went on a 13-7 run to extend their lead to 16 at 53-37. Captaining the Falcons during the streak was Sareyka's six points.

Wilkes tried to fight their way back into the game, getting to within nine points at 58-49. Messiah was not going to allow this to happen though, responding with a 5-0 flurry to give themselves a 14 point cushion at 63-49 with 8:25 to play. The Colonels threatened again, cutting the lead back down to ten at 63-53, but Messiah responded again with a few more buckets to stretch their lead back out to 69-55 with 5:48 to play.

That was the theme of the second half, whenever the Colonels tried to build a comeback, the Falcons answered the call to sway the momentum back in their favor. Wilkes got to within nine again at 74-65 with 2:11 to play, but it was too little too late for the Colonels. Eberle and Porter then hit from downtown to all but seal the deal for the Falcons in this one.

They defeated Wilkes by a final score of 80-68 to extend their winning streak to four games and improve their overall record to 6-1 after picking up their first MAC Commonwealth victory earlier in the week against Stevenson.

Inside The Box Score
As mentioned, four Falcons scored in double-digits in the game with Josh Darville recording a double-double for Messiah (10 pts., 11 reb.). Messiah continued their hot shooting from the three point line, knocking down seven more threes in the game and shooting 46.7%. They shot an impressive 59.3% as a team from the field in the contest.

What's Up Next
The Falcons will next hit the court on Wednesday when they travel to Williamsport to take on Lycoming College in a MAC Commonwealth matchup at 6:00 p.m. Messiah beat the Warriors 74-63 and 57-52 in their two games last season.