TodayWomen's Basketball: Falcons falter in final
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Article RatingHOLLAND, Mich. — Messiah College’s women’s basketball team learned Saturday night that you can’t always get what you want.
Or deserve.
The Falcons did not get the Division III national championship, as they lost to Howard Payne University of Brownwood, Tex., 68-54, in the championship game at Hope College’s DeVos Fieldhouse.
No. 4-ranked Messiah finished the season 30-3 while Howard Payne, which won the national championship in its first Final Four appearance, completed the first undefeated season since Washington University of St. Louis went 30-0 in 2000. Messiah lost to Washington in the Falcons’ only other trip to the title game, in 2001.
“I wanted this for them,” Messiah coach Mike Miller said of the Falcons, particularly seniors Lauren Schurr, Amy Reed, Nikki Lobach and Gwen Avery. “They earned the right — not that they are necessarily going to get it, but life was real fair in getting these four seniors to this game.
“We got beat by a really good team and I’m sorry that their last athletic memory is somewhat negative, because everything else they bring to the table is absolutely positive.”
Messiah, which went 10-0 in winning the Commonwealth Division of the Mid-Atlantic Conference, fell behind by 10 at halftime (35-25), surrendered the first six points of the second half, fell behind by as many as 19 and could never get closer than 10 in the second half.
“We didn’t handle the ball well in the first half, which meant that we had to play a lot of defense,” Miller said. “Our turnovers caused some of their points in the first half. (HPU senior forward Kimberly) Hoffman played outstanding. I was a little nervous about her coming in, but Meia Daniels is who makes them hard to prepare for.”
Daniels, who was named this year’s Division III Player of the Year, scored 15 points Saturday night, while Hoffman led all scorers in the game with 21.
Lobach scored 20 for the Falcons, while Schurr finished her career with 11 points.
“At times we played really well and at times we didn’t,” Miller said. “Did we play our best game? Absolutely not, but I am a firm believer that the other team has almost everything to do with that.”
Messiah advanced to Saturday’s championship game by beating Oglethorpe University of Atlanta in semifinal action Friday night.
“It has been a lot of fun, even though we lost,” Lobach said. “We are going to look back at this with a lot of great memories. They’re a great team. They have a lot of great individual players and they work well together. We played the best we could. We made a few mental errors that could have turned the game around, and every mistake we make they capitalized on.
“It’s sad, because we had such a close team this year. There is a lot ahead of each of the seniors. Everyone wants to win their last game, but someone has to lose.”
