Glenside, PA – Arcadia University finished Saturday's game against Messiah College with a 20-6 run, breaking a late 75-75 tie to earn a big Commonwealth victory over the Falcons. Sophomore Travis Saltus made eight of 12 shots to score a game-high 24 points, as all five Arcadia starters scored double-digit points.
The win for Arcadia keeps them in fourth place in the Commonwealth at 5-3, with Messiah slipping to 4-4 and into a tie with Lebanon Valley.
Last year the Knights finished 2-12 in the Commonwealth, good for last place. But a lineup that started four freshmen a season ago is now one year older, and proved on Saturday that their learning curve was steep.
On Saturday, the Knights started four sophomores and their only senior on the roster, leading scorer Khalief Trawick. They got off to a fast start, going up 7-0 in the first 2:13 to force a Messiah timeout.
But the Falcons soon settled down, receiving buckets from multiple players before Taylor Groff put Messiah ahead 15-13 with a three-pointer from the right corner. Later in the half, another three-point bucket from Groff put Messiah up 27-22, as the Falcons would eventually go up 37-29 with 2:37 left before the break.
Arcadia cut Messiah's lead to 38-34 with just under a minute left on the clock, but saw Messiah score buckets on their final two possession of the frame to take a 42-34 lead into the break.
The second-half started quickly for the Knights, as Saltus would contribute eight points to a 16-7 run that put Arcadia in front 50-49. Arcadia's run was the product of aggressive play in the half-court, as they drove and slashed to the basket to find high-percentage shots.
The Knights also started to stall the Messiah offense, playing with a 2-3 match-up zone on their defensive end.
Though at first unable to counter the zone defense, the Falcons continued to execute, with a three-pointer by freshman Scott Bolen putting Messiah up 60-56 with 11:45 to play. But in a game full of streaks, the Falcons again lost the lead as Arcadia scored sixteen of the game's next twenty-two points to take a 72-66 lead. A three-point by play by Saltus put an exclamation point on the run, with the home fans cheering loudly.
Undeterred, Messiah soon tied the game at 75-75 as Christyan DeVan tipped in a missed three-pointer by Brad Bolen with 5:27 to go. But seconds later the Knights went ahead for good on a free-throw by sophomore Aaron Lee-Webb. A possession later Webb added two more shots from the charity stripe to put Arcadia up 78-75, with classmate Joe Brown scoring a layup with 4:16 on the clock to give the hosts an 80-75 lead.
The quick five-point advantage would be the start of a 20-6 run to end the game, with Brown accounting for nine points himself. The Falcons were unable to slow the Knights' furious finish, as they missed six-straight shots after tying the game on DeVan's tip-in. Altogether, Messiah shot just 2-13 in the final minutes.
Six of those misses were from three-point range, as Arcadia's match-up zone limited the Falcons' looks around the basket. On the other end, the Knights' aggressive play around the rim led to an incredible 28 points in the paint in the second-half alone, double their total from the first half. The high-percentage looks contributed to an even-more-impressive 67.3% shooting performance from the field (33-49), more than twenty percentage points higher than their season average of 45.7% shooting.
Messiah shot a respectable 47.5% from the field, making 28 of 59 attempts. Though they shot just eight of 24 from three-point range, the 81 points is their second-highest scoring output on the year.
The Falcons were led in scoring by Hoy, as he shot seven of 13 from the field for 20 points. Taylor Groff scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high six rebounds, with Derek Mosley adding 12 points. Brad Bolen, the Falcons' leading scorer, was limited to nine points on three of eight shooting from the field.
As mentioned, all five Arcadia (9-5, 5-3) starters scored in double-figures, with Brown scoring 19 points on an efficient six of seven from the field. Trawick scored 15 points, with Colin McCarthy and Webb adding 14 points and 10 points, respectively.
Messiah (8-6, 4-4) will look to rebound from the loss next week when they host Widener University on Wednesday, Jan. 16. The Pride sit at 3-5 in the conference following a loss at Hood College today. Game time is set for 8:00 p.m.