Grantham, PA – Messiah College outscored Rosemont 50-32 in the second-half to turn a 10 point halftime lead into a rout in a season-opening victory in Brubaker Auditorium. Brad Bolen scored 21 points on 9-15 shooting to lead five Falcons' double-figure scorers as the Falcons shot 62.9 percent from field overall.
 
The 95 points for Falcons is their most in a season's opening game since a 109-53 win over Goshen in 1982-83. That game was also played at home.
 
Messiah went up 17-8 after six minutes of play to prompt a 30-second timeout from the Ravens.  Christyan DeVan scored six of his 17 points in those early minutes, finishing at the rim each time after catching passes off his teammates' drives into the paint. The Falcons would steadily build their lead, going up 37-23 at the 6:01 mark on a fastbreak dunk by Scott Bolen.
 
The Falcons' largest lead in the first-half would be 18 points (43-25), earned at the 3:36 mark on a paint score by Taylor Groff. But sloppy play and 1-6 shooting in the final minutes allowed Rosemont to get back into the game; the Ravens outscored Messiah 10-2 to cut their deficit to just 10 points heading into halftime.
 
A big reason for the Ravens' comeback was the play of their bench, which outscored Messiah 22-6 in the first-half. Rosemont also shot 12-15 from the line in the first 20 minutes.
 
Messiah responded in the opening minutes of the second-half with a 9-0 run that was punctuated by a full-court pass from DeVan to Brad Bolen for a contested finish in transition. From that point forward, the Falcons never trailed by less than 13 points and, from the 13:00 mark forward they never trailed by less than 19 points.
 
Taylor Groff finished with 20 points on 7-12 shooting while DeVan finished a percent 7-7 from the field. They each grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. David Fernandez was extremely efficient in his first game back after missing last season with injury, shooting 5-7 from the field to score 10 points and falling a single assist shy of a double-double.
 
Scott Bolen finished with 13 points on 6-10 shooting.
 
The Falcons' impressive shooting was a product of their aggressiveness towards the rim as they outscored Rosemont 62-26 in the paint. Messiah's pressure also created opportunities in transition where they had a 14-2 scoring edge over the Ravens.
 
With the win Messiah will face Hartwick College on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. in the championship of the Homewood Suites Tip-Off Tournament. Hartwick defeated Ursinus College 89-73 earlier in the day.