The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team continued its solid start to the 2015-16 season by making a little history on Friday night as the Chargers defeated Messiah for the first time in program history as Lancaster Bible defeated the Falcons, 82-67 in Grantham, Pa. The victory improves the Chargers to 2-0 this season and the team will face Franklin & Marshall in Saturday's championship game of the TownePlace Suites Tip-Off Tournament held at Messiah College.

How it Happened: The Chargers started off slow on Friday night as they scored just nine points in the first 8:22 of the contest. Messiah did not fare much better from the floor, but built a 10-point lead at 19-9 midway through the opening half. From that point however, Lancaster Bible caught fire and went on a 13-0 run over the next 3:22 to take a 22-19 advantage. The Chargers would lead by as many as six on two different occasions in the first half, the first coming at 30-24, followed by a 33-27 advantage after a free throw from CJ Dunston with 3:40 to play in the half. 

The host Falcons responded with a 10-2 scoring run of their own in the final minutes of the half and took a 37-35 lead into halftime. Lancaster Bible trailed by just two at the half, despite shooting an abysmal 11-of-37 (29.7 percent) from the floor over the first 20 minutes. The Chargers however took advantage of Messiah's 14 first-half fouls and went 12-of-18 from the free throw line.

In the second half, the game turned into a bucket-for-bucket affair as another Dunston layup gave Lancaster Bible a 53-52 lead with 11:49 to play. After Messiah responded with a bucket, Lancaster Bible junior Kurt Keltner drained one of his four 3-pointers on the night to give the Chargers a 56-54 lead. Two free throws from Jordan Mellinger and a turnover by the Falcons followed and Dunston put an exclamation point on the scoring run with an alley-oop dunk from Bryce Williams to give the Chargers a 60-54 lead with 9:51 remaining. 

Messiah's Luke Cable hit a 3-pointer with 6:04 left to cut the Falcons' deficit to three at 62-59, but they would not get closer as Lancaster Bible exploded with a 15-0 scoring run over the next four minutes to put the game away. Dondre Perry capped the run with a fastbreak layup to give the Chargers a 77-59 lead with 2:04 to play and send the Chargers to their first-ever win over the Falcons. 

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible's shooting picked up in the second half as the Chargers shot 18-of-35 (51.4 percent) and finished the game, 29-of-72 (40.3 percent)...Dunston finished with a game-high 24 points and 16 rebounds and also added four blocks and four steals...Keltner had a career-high 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor and a 5-of-6 effort from the free throw line...Perry finished with 13 points, while fellow senior Jordan Mellinger had 12 points...Williams had just six points, but added seven assists and five rebounds.

The Coach Says: "Tonight was a great win for the team and the guys really came together," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "The first half was rough and we were just horrible offensively, but once we started to move the basketball and play with pace, we found success. I thought the pace we played at was huge because it enabled us to get easy buckets and also made their big guys tired. I'm just extremely proud of the guys and the way they played tonight."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 1-8 all-time against Messiah...The Chargers had 20 points off of 20 Messiah turnovers...Lancaster Bible has not started a season 2-0 since the 2005-06 campaign...Messiah defeated Lancaster Bible, 92-66 last season in Grantham...Lancaster Bible is 0-2 all-time against Franklin & Marshall...The last time the Chargers met the Diplomats was during the 2011-12 season when Franklin & Marshall downed Lancaster Bible, 57-40 at Horst Athletic Center.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible and Franklin & Marshall, separated by just 3.4 miles, will meet on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the championship game of the TownePlace Suites Tip-Off Tournament.