CHESTER, Pa. - The Messiah men's basketball team shook off a cold-shooting first half to claim the 79-72 victory over the Widener Pride on Thursday night. The Falcons held a slim 27-25 lead at the half, before the lid came off in the second half for both teams. Messiah was led by their senior forwards, Will Young IV and Matt Glogowski, who both collected double-doubles in the victory.
 
Young went for a game-high 18 points and grabbed a dozen rebounds while Matt Glogowski dropped 14 points and snagged a team-high 14 boards. Michael Healy and Arkese Claiborne joined the pair in double figures with 10 points each as all 10 Falcons that logged minutes found the scoresheet.
 
Strong Beginning
Young got things going for the Falcons with the opening bucket of the contest, a jumper just 1:22 into the game. The following 10 minutes of gameplay proved to be a shootout between the two conference foes. The Pride leveled the score, 11-11, with 8:45 remaining. During the 10-minute stretch, Messiah featured three different scorers, highlighted by a five-point contribution from Glogowski.

A layup from Young at the 7:07 mark sparked a 6-2 scoring run for the Falcons, giving the visitors an 18-13 lead with 3:39 remaining in the half. Widener enjoyed its own scoring run in the following minute, connecting on three-consecutive field goals to fuel a 7-0 scoring run that left the Pride with a narrow lead with just 2:53 remaining, 20-18. The two sides traded pairs of free throws down the stretch, before a clutch triple from Caleb Light leveled the score, 25-25, with 33 ticks left on the clock. Claiborne earned himself a trip to the charity stripe with nine seconds left of the half. The freshman guard connected on both attempts, giving the Falcons a 27-25 edge heading into halftime.

Messiah shot 7-of-11 from the free throw line throughout the first half, outrebounding the Pride, 30-20.

Scoring Frenzy
Messiah came out firing to begin the second half. Bryce Coletti got himself on the board by draining a three-pointer for the opening basket of the half, followed by a layup from Young to give the Falcons a 32-25 lead just over a minute into the period. Young continued to contribute offensively, tallying his 10th point of the night at the 15:37 mark with a made jumper. Evan Parker rattled home a shot from beyond the arc, extending the Messiah lead to six (41-35), with 14:15 remaining in the game. Widener proceeded to take over. An 11-0 scoring spurt shot the hosts ahead, 46-41, with 11:17 left for the Falcons to find their way back into the game.

After surrendering the biggest scoring run of the game, Messiah answered with an 8-0 scoring run of its own, reclaiming the lead, 49-46. The Falcons scored their eights points of the scoring surge in just 49 seconds of game clock behind made three-pointers from Healy and Claiborne. Messiah continued to stay hot beyond the arc. Christian Reames connected from downtown at the 10:28 mark, and Healy converted on his second three-pointer of the game to give the Falcons a 55-51 advantage with just under ten minutes to play.

The three-pointers continued to fall as Glogowski hit from range, a triple that gave Messiah its biggest lead of the game, 58-51. The Falcons continued to cruise as a free throw from Young capped Messiah's largest lead of the night, an 11-point lead (66-55) with 5:07 remaining. The free throw was the final installment of a 25-9 run from the Falcons that lasted over six minutes, fueled by a 7-for-9 shooting performance. The Pride would not go down lightly, as a 9-0 scoring run cut the Widener deficit to two, 66-64. Only two minutes remained, and Messiah scored the game's next six points behind a pair of made free throws from both Claiborne and Young, and a layup from Glogowski. Messiah was able to hold on, going an impressive 9-for-10 from the line in the final minute of the contest. The 79-72 decision gave the Falcons' their second victory of the season, improving to 2-5 in their 2021 campaign.

Messiah was propelled by a strong second half shooting perormance. The Falcons shot a 46.2% (12-26) in the deciding period of play, shooting 7-11 (63.6%) from downtown.
 
Notable Falcons
Along with dropping a season-high 14 points, Glogowski reeled in a game-high 14 rebounds. Both Coletti and Young shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line, with Claiborne converting 7-of-8 of his attempts. A perfect shooting performance (3-3) from Healy fueled his ten points, connecting on both of his shots from beyond the arc. In total, the Falcons matched a season-high mark by registered four scorers in double digits, missing just six of their 34 total free throw attempts. For the first time during the 2021 season, the Falcons outrebounded their opponent, snagging 53 rebounds to Widener's 37.
 
What's Next?
Messiah (2-5) looks for consecutive victories opposite Widener (3-4) as the two sides square off tomorrow night in Hitchcock Arena at 7:00 p.m.