Print

Share

• Email to a friend
• Add This

Article Rating

Current Rating: (

0

/5)

Low High

(Rated

0

times)

By Jeffrey Kauffman

Last updated: Thursday, January 31, 2008 2:11 AM EST

Sentinel Reporter

Sportsdoor@cumberlink.com

Messiah College hosted Lycoming College in a women/men doubleheader and sent Lycoming home with losses in both games.

The Falcon women won 60-47 while the men rallied to win 79-68 in the nightcap at Brubaker Auditorium.

Lycoming is competing in the Commonwealth Conference this year for the first time, transferring over from the MAC Freedom Conference.

Messiah (3-0 Commonwealth, 16-2 overall) struggled against a scrappy Lycoming women squad throughout the first 30 minutes of the game. The Falcons didn’t knock down shots, showed varied stretches of intensity, and poor rebounding.

However, over the final eleven minutes of the game, Messiah flipped a switch and showed up to play. It proceeded to outscore the Warriors 25-11 and controlled the boards, clamped down and forced turnovers on defense and scored points in transition.

The one constant was Silalei Shani, a junior from Senegal, who patrolled the middle and shut the paint area down. She blocked three shots, added four rebounds and scored 13 points in the second half. Her post presence opened up the wings and shooters Lauren Schurr and Katie Kalb drained triples to stretch the final margin.

Lycoming did not score over the final four minutes, allowing the Falcons to score the last ten points of the contest.

Shani led the Falcons with 19 points and nine rebounds. Nikki Lobach added 14 points while Kalb and Schurr combined for 17 points, including five treys. The win stretched the Falcon regular-season winning streak in the league to 38 consecutive wins in the Commonwealth Conference.

“I’m not sure what was wrong tonight. We were not clicking on offense and we never got in sync,” said Messiah assistant coach Larry Sassaman. “We had a lack of focus and we were making unforced errors with a lack of pressure. We settled down over the final 10 minutes and started to play our game. Shani, who always brings excitement for the crowd, shut down the middle with Ashley Brooks, and we were able to get out in transition. Katie and Lauren were able to knock down some big shots and we certainly did a better job of rebounding the ball and playing defense,”

The Warrior men (1-2 Commonwealth, 9-8 overall) shot lights out in the first half and jumped out to a 10-point lead at 22-12. They canned four shots from beyond the arc to aid that run.

Messiah (2-1 Commonwealth, 13-5 overall) got a spark from Andy Hawk and Ryan Nicholas. Hawk canned a triple and added a tip-in sandwiched around a Kyle Snyder trey. Jason Miller knocked down two free throws before Nicholas scored the final five points, including a big triple, of the half to give the Falcons a 38-36 advantage.

Each time the Falcons started to pull away in the second half, the Warriors canned a big shot to close the gap. Eric Anthony hit a big trey and Trinity grad Kevin Morris hit a 3-point play and added a couple of other buckets down the stretch to keep the Warriors alive in the contest. Anthony led the Warriors with 20 points, including four from beyond the arc.

The key was the Messiah foul shooting as they knocked down 24 of 28 foul shots in the second half, including 20 of 22 in the final seven minutes.

Jamie Yoder and Jason Miller drained three treys in the second half as each allowed the Falcons to keep some distance. The lead dropped to four at 1:03 on a Morris drive, but the Falcons outscored the Warriors 9-2 over the final minute.

Morris tallied fifteen points but was only 5 of 13 from the field, including 0-for-7 from the arc.

Hawk, the former Cedar Cliff star, tallied a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Miller and Brown led the Falcons with 15 and 14 respectively. Yoder and Kyle Snyder added 11 points each.

“This league is tough,” added Falcon coach Rick Van Pelt. “Every night is going to be a battle and we have to be ready to play. We knocked down foul shots in the second half but our defense was not what we want down the stretch. We made some adjustments at the half and we did make it tougher for them to get the open shots they had the first half. We made some defensive mistakes down the stretch and kept them in the game. That is something we will have to talk about tomorrow. Curtin, Hawk and Nicholas played big tonight and hit some key shots. Yoder, (Darryl) Brown, Miller, and Snyder all hit foul shots and gave us plays while Drew Sneeringer recovers from an ankle problem.”

Both Messiah teams travel to Widener on Saturday for a doubleheader with the girls game starting at 1:00pm.