ANNVILLE, PA. - The Messiah women's basketball found themselves in a tie game heading into the final quarter of play, but prevailed against the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen 55-49. Reese Harden had a team high 19 points while Amber High added 15 on the afternoon.
 
The win caps off the regular season at 23-2 and finishes their conference record with a perfect 16-0 mark. The Falcons will face either these same Dutchmen or the Widener Pride on Wednesday, February 22 for the MAC Commonwealth Semifinals. That Semifinal game will be at 7:00 PM in Hitchcock Arena in Grantham, Pa.
 
How It Happened
The Falcons got off to a sluggish start on Saturday afternoon, trailing by as many as six points in the opening quarter at 14-8. Faith Grula ended the period with a layup at the buzzer to cut the deficit to four at 14-10.
 
Lebanon Valley's strong play continued into the early portion of the second quarter, expanding their lead to 10 points at 22-12 with 6:57 remaining in the half. Messiah connected on buckets from Reese Harden and Megan Zimmerman in the next minute to take it back to a six-point lead at 22-16. After a jumper from Sydney Hoffman made it a four-point game, the Dutchmen responded with four-straight points to take a 26-18 lead with 3:31 left in the half.
 
Messiah wrapped up the half with seven-straight points from Amber High with a pair of jumpers and a three pointer in the final seconds of the half. High's streak brought Messiah within one at the break, trailing the Dutchmen 26-25.
 
The third quarter saw the two teams trade buckets for virtually the entirety of the period. Neither team held a lead of over two points and when the dust settled after 30 minutes of play, Messiah and Lebanon Valley were level at 39-39.
 
Back-to-back three pointers in the first minute of the fourth quarter gave Messiah a six-point lead with Amber High and Chloe Milanesi each knocking down triples. Jumpers from Reese Harden and Faith Grula followed and Messiah took their largest lead of the game at 49-39.
 
Lebanon Valley was unable to pull any closer than five points down the stretch as the Falcons earned the 55-49 victory. As mentioned, Reese Harden led the Falcons with 19 points while grabbing nine rebounds. Amber High dropped 15 points on a solid 6-9 shooting performance.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons had previously claimed the top seed in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament that will begin next week. Messiah is slated to host the winner of the Play-In Game on Wednesday night in the MAC Commonwealth Semifinals at 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Valley will host Widener in the Play-In Game on Monday evening.