YORK, PA – The York College men's basketball team put together their most complete game of the year but undefeated Messiah College escaped Charles Wolf Gymnasium with a 75-69 non-conference win on Tuesday night in York.
The Falcons improve to 4-0 overall while the Green and White falls to 0-4 for the season.
The game was back-and-forth all night long and the Spartans looked poised to pull the upset. York went on a quick spurt to take a 63-56 lead on a Brad Wesner (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) lay up with 5:59 left in regulation. The seven-point advantage was the largest for either squad in the game.
The Falcons responded with a 10-0 run to take a 66-63 lead with 3:24 left. The Spartans had two turnovers and a missed shot on the run while the Falcons went 4-for-4 from the field including a Luke Cable three point play to cap the spurt.
York responded by tying the game for the eighth, and final, time when Duffy drilled a three pointer, knotting the score at 66 with 3:06 left. Zac Hoy gave the Falcons the lead for good when he canned a triple to give Messiah a 69-66 lead.
York cut the Messiah lead to two at 71-69 on a Duffy lay up with just over 26 seconds left in the game. The Spartans fouled Hoy and the guard missed the first attempt with 11 seconds left. Hoy missed the second attempt but Josh Clippinger grabbed the huge offensive rebound, forcing the Spartans to foul again. Clippinger converted the two free throws and Duffy missed the ensuing three. The Spartans were forced to foul again, sending Neil Murren to the line where he sealed the win with a pair of free throws with one second left in regulation.
The Falcons had a balanced attack as they placed four players in double figures led by Cable as the sophomore notched 14 points. Cable was 6-for-11 from the floor including 1-for-6 from three. He had entered the game shooting over 50% from downtown. Clippinger contributed 13 points and five rebounds while Murren added 11 points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots. David Fernandez added 10 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals, and one blocked shot. Five of Fernandez's seven rebounds came on the offensive end of the floor.
Duffy led all scorers as the freshman guard tallied a career-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor including 3-of-7 from three. Duffy also drained 4-of-6 from the free throw line in addition to pulling six rebounds in 34 minutes of work. Wesner contributed 14 points in 31 minutes of play. Dalton Myers (Finksburg, Md./Westminster) added 12 points and eight rebounds to the Spartans' cause. Junior Chris Conway (Luthersville, Md./Dulaney) chipped in a career-high eight points while he also had four rebounds and two assists as he made his first career start for the Green and White.
The Spartans finished the game shooting 45.5% from the floor while Messiah shot 43.9% from the field. York was 4-for-14 (28.6%) from three while the Falcons converted 8-of-27 (29.6%) from downtown. Messiah was 17-for-25 (68%) from the stripe while York was 15-for-21 (71.4%) from the line.
Messiah outrebounded York 37-32 while both teams were virtually even in turnovers as the Falcons had 15 miscues to 14 for the hosts. The Spartans did take advantage of the Messiah mistakes as they converted those turnovers into 22 points.
York got off to a quick start in the game as they led 7-2 less than two minutes into the game. The Spartans led by six before the Falcons went on a 9-0 run to take a three-point lead midway through the first half. The remainder of the first half featured four lead changes and three ties including the 32-32 score at the half.
The first 13 minutes of the second half were much of the same as the two teams put on a great show for the 500 fans in attendance Tuesday night.
The Green and White return to action on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Misericordia to face the Cougars in a non-conference contest. Tip time in Dallas, PA is set for 2:00 pm.