Blue Jays get past Messiah, 71-59

From the E-town College Website:

Men's basketball gets past Messiah, 71-59

ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, January 10, 2009

Elizabethtown 71, Messiah 59

Click here for the box score

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Joe Flanagan (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) finished with a career-high 23 points as Elizabethtown College improved to 2-0 in the Commonwealth Conference with a 71-59 victory over Messiah College at Thompson Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

Keith Fogel (Mifflinburg, PA/Mifflinburg) equaled his career high with 21 points for the Blue Jays (8-6 overall, 2-0 Commonwealth), who shot a sizzling 58.3 percent (21-for-36) from the field in the game including 11-for-17 (64.7 percent) in the second half.

Mike Church (Peach Bottom, PA/Solanco) also reached double figures with 13 points for Elizabethtown, while Kyle McConnell (Lebanon, PA/Cedar Crest) went 8-for-8 from the foul line and finished with 10 points.

Flanagan, whose previous high was 21 points against Marymount University on Nov. 25, went 9-for-10 from the field including 2-for-2 from three-point range, and hit 3-for-4 from the foul line for the Blue Jays.

Fogel, who also came up with five steals, hit 7-for-12 from the floor including two three-pointers, and went 5-for-5 from the line to extend his streak of consecutive made free throws to 21.

Jason Miller led the Falcons (2-11 overall, 0-1 Commonwealth) with 17 points and five assists, but Messiah committed 25 turnovers in suffering its sixth straight loss.

Elizabethtown led 29-16 with 5:46 left in the first half, but the Falcons scored the next 13 points to tie the game at 29-29 on a layup by Colton Reitz with 2:13 left in the half. A layup by Fogel gave the Blue Jays a 31-29 lead at halftime, part of his game-high 10-point effort in the opening half.

The Blue Jays never trailed in the second half, but saw the Falcons cut what was a seven-point deficit down to 46-45 on a fast-break layup by Miller with 9:04 remaining. Messiah trailed 53-50 with 5:26 to go, but clutch three-pointers by Flanagan and Mark Vogel (Landisville, PA/Hempfield) sparked a 13-2 run that extended the Elizabethtown advantageto 66-52 with 1:22 left.

Jamie Yoder joined Miller in double figures for Messiah with 11 points, but the Falcons shot 48.9 percent (22-for-45) from the field as a team including 8-for-25 from three-point range.

Phil Schaffer (Marmora, NJ/Ocean City) led all players with eight assists in 28 minutes of action for the Blue Jays, while Flanagan and Church shared the team led with five rebounds each.