GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's basketball team capped off the 2018-19 regular season with a 57-49 victory over the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen on Thursday night on Jordan Court in Hitchcock Arena. The Falcons finish the regular season with an overall record of 24-1 and a perfect, 16-0 record in the conference. Both Messiah's 24 overall wins and 16 conference victories in the regular season set new program records. This is the first time the Falcons have finished the regular season undefeated in conference play since they went 10-0 in the 2007-08 season.
 
Messiah trailed 40-38 at the end of the third quarter, but just as they have all year, the Falcons rallied in the fourth, outscoring Lebanon Valley 19-9 in the period, for the 57-49 victory.
 
Maci Thornton led the Falcons with 19 points in the victory, while Kristen Smoluk and Eleana Eckley finished in double-digits with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Alecia Rohrer grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds.

Falcons Trail in First Half
Lebanon Valley College opened the first quarter on a 6-to-0 run over the Falcons after scoring three-consecutive layups in the paint. Messiah found their first bucket of the game at the 5:27 minute mark when Becca Isaac drained a three-pointer from the top of the arc. This generated some momentum for the Falcons and they tied the game up (10-10) after Eleana Eckley knocked in three-straight free-throw attempts.  The Dutchmen closed out the quarter on a four-point run to pull ahead 14-10 going into the second.
 
Kristen Smoluk started things off for the Falcons at the start of the second quarter by knocking down a jumper, however LVC responded to maintain their advantage (16-12). The action was back-and-forth throughout the majority of the second quarter and Messiah came close to taking the lead from LVC, but the Dutchmen were able to remain on top. Although the Falcons outscored the Dutchmen 16-15 in the quarter, they still trailed 29-26 going into the halftime break.
 
Competitive Third Quarter
Maci Thornton came out of halftime and tied things up at 29-29 after knocking down a three-pointer from deep range. Eleana Eckley then connected on a free-throw attempt to give Messiah their first lead of the game (30-29). However, LVC responded with a layup of their own to regain the lead. The lead changed six more times as both teams were taking advantage of their offensive possessions. The Falcons then went on their largest run of the quarter to pull ahead 38-35. Maci Thornton started this run with a layup off of Alecia Rohrer's feed and Kristen Smoluk was successful on both free throw attempts to give Messiah a three-point lead with just over two minutes remaining. The Dutchmen closed out the quarter on a 5-to-0 run to take a 40-38 lead going into the fourth and final quarter.
 
Falcons Soar to Victory
The Falcons came alive in the fourth quarter and outscored the Dutchmen 19-9 to claim the 57-49 victory. Maci Thornton once again sparked Messiah's offense with back-to-back three-pointers and Kristen Smoluk followed those triples with a jumper of her own to give the Falcons a six-point lead (46-40). LVC responded on a 6-to-2 run which brought Messiah's lead down to two points, however the Falcons answered with a 9-to-3 run to close out the quarter. 
 
The fourth quarter was the Falcons best offensive showing of the evening. Messiah shot 45.5% (5-of-11) from the field, 50% (2-of-4) from three-point territory, and were 70% (7-of-10) from the line in the final ten minutes of play. 
 
Up Next
Messiah finished conference play with a clean sweep (16-0) to claim the top seed in the MAC Commonwealth tournament.  The Falcons will be off this weekend but will return to Jordan Court on Wednesday (Feb. 20) when they host the conference semifinal game. Messiah will play the winner of the play-in game on Monday, keep an eye out for the conference tournament preview early next week on GoMessiah.com.