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From the Lancaster Sunday News:

Blue Jays earn an early 'must win'

Blue Jays rally from 16-point deficit to beat Messiah in overtime.

Dec 06, 2009 00:11 EST
Elizabethtown

By JASON GUARENTE, Correspondent

It's not often a college basketball coach puts a must-win emphasis on a game played in early December.

That was the attitude Elizabethtown's Bob Schlosser took into Saturday.

"This was a critical game for us," he said. "We never say to our guys, 'You have to win this one.' But we said that tonight. We felt we had to win."

E-town's players answered their coach's request. They rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to edge Messiah, 69-64, in overtime at Thompson Gym.

Why did a game played so early in the season carry such importance for E-town?

The Blue Jays had already lost their Centennial Conference opener against Alvernia Wednesday. A setback against Messiah would have left the Jays 0-2 in the conference with both losses coming at home. That would have put a serious dent in their hopes of contending this season.

Even with that consequence at stake, E-town didn't exactly come out firing on all cylinders. The Jays were stagnant on offense and a step slow on defense until the early stages of the second half.

Messiah hit 7 of its first 11 attempts from behind the 3-point arc as it built a 41-25 lead with 18:47 remaining in regulation.

That's when E-town flipped its defensive switch and played with more urgency.

"We started pressing," Schlosser said. "We always pick up full court, but we did a little more trapping and pressing out of it, which I thought made the difference. It was not only good for turnovers, but I thought it took them out of their offense."

E-town burst on a 17-2 run in the span of 6:42 to cut the deficit to one point and give itself new life.

Messiah, which had been so efficient on offense, broke down in the second half. The Falcons only made three of their final 13 3-point attempts and only shot 10-for-33 after halftime.

"I thought there were points in the second half when we were organized," Messiah coach Rick Van Pelt said. "But definitely at the end of regulation we made a couple of terrible miscues, just being in the wrong spot.

"E-town does a great job. They put pressure on you from start to finish. They make you play the full court. We just had people out of position at the end. They made some big plays. They scrambled and did a good job."

Elizabethtown overcame a 55-48 deficit in the final 2:09 of regulation. Hempfield grad Mark Vogel hit a clutch 3-pointer with 1:11 remaining that capped a 7-0 run and pulled E-town even.

Keith Fogel's steal and layup with 27 seconds left gave E-town its first lead at 59-57, but Messiah's Chris Yoder, also a Hempfield alum, made a basket with 15.9 seconds remaining to force overtime.

E-town opened the OT with a 7-2 run to pull away from Messiah and prevail.

Fogel led a quartet of Blue Jay players scoring in double figures with 17 points. Lancaster Mennonite's Joe Flanagan added 15, Bryan Harrity had a career-high 11 off the bench and Solanco's Mike Church chipped in 10.

Messiah was led by Northern Lebanon's Colton Reitz, who contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds.

It was a grind-it-out win for E-town. The Jays only had five field goals in the final 14 minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime and only shot 27 percent during that stretch. They won by hitting 22 of their 27 free throw attempts.

E-town didn't play great, but it played well enough to earn a crucial victory.

"This is a game we really needed," Schlosser said. "We needed it just for our psyche. To go 0-2 in the conference with both games being at home would have been really tough to deal with."