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Messiah Recovers To Ease Past St. Lawrence, Heads To 'Sweet 16'
Junior Sal Shani picked a good night to chart her first career double-double, scoring 24 and boarding 10.

Grantham, PA — A sharp-shooting guard from St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y.) did her best to see that the Messiah College women’s basketball team would fail to reach the ‘Sweet 16’ Saturday night at Brubaker Auditorium.

The Saints’ Jamie Wolff scored 18 first-half points behind a torrid four-of-five effort from three-point land, keeping St. Lawrence within a 30-29 score at halftime.

It was then that the Falcons decided their season would not be over on this night.

Messiah used a potent second-half flurry and smothering defense to hand the Saints a 64-49 loss in the 2008 NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship Second Round Saturday night, holding Wolff scoreless in the final 20 minutes of play while making 11 of 18 shots from the field (61.1 percent).

The win moves the Falcons into the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2004-2005 season, as the team will take on the University of Rochester (22-5) Friday evening at a location yet to be determined.

As the team stood at midcourt and applauded a boisterous throng of supporters immediately following Saturday night’s conclusion, it was clear that Messiah head coach Mike Miller was grateful to be advancing.

After nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances and 10 overall, Messiah (27-2) was headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time in three years.

That’s getting off the schneid, at least by Mike Miller standards.

“It feels wonderful, as we now have catch-phrases,” Miller said in opening his post-game press conference. “There are no more first- or second- rounds. You’ve got the ‘Sweet 16,’ the ‘Elite 8’ and the ‘Final Four.’ You always want to participate in those catch-phrase games, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to do that.”

It appeared as if Messiah — ranked fifth in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll and fourth in the D3hoops.com  ballot — would breeze its way into the round of 16 at the outset of the weekend, as the squad made easy work of Cabrini College (Radnor, Pa.) by a 63-34 score in first-round action Friday night.

St. Lawrence (24-5), however, would provide much greater resistance, thanks mostly to an incredible first-half performance by Wolff. The Saints’ 5-8 senior buried seven of 11 shots in the first 20 minutes, making ridiculously tough shots look easy. Twice Wolff banked in viciously contested runners in the lane as the shot clock buzzer sounded, while a 30-footer with just seven seconds remaining in the first half closed her team to just a one-point deficit at the intermission.

As Wolff provided 18 of her team’s 29 first-half points, Miller was delicate in approaching the subject with his team at halftime.

“They all knew it without me having to say anything,” Miller said regarding Wolff’s outburst. “She’s an outstanding player and a 1,000-point scorer, but every one of our players that guarded her in the first half had a choice on how they would guard her, and we made some poor ones. I obviously had to address it, but it was something they already knew.”

An improved defensive effort on Wolff was spear-headed by senior Nikki Lobach in the second half.

Classmate Lauren Schurr and junior Sal Shani helped provide the spark on offense.

Following an interior basket from the Saints’ Jenna Krzemien just 35 seconds into the second period, a three-pointer from Schurr would ignite a 22-4 Messiah run over the game’s next eight minutes, turning a 31-30 St. Lawrence lead into a 52-35 Falcons’ advantage. Schurr scored all 12 of her points — via four three pointers — in that eight-minute window, as Miller’s team put up the type of performance worthy of ‘catch-phrase’ competition.

St. Lawrence burned three timeouts during Messiah’s push, but it was little use. When Schurr wasn’t draining threes from the perimeter, it was Shani going to work inside, as the 6-2 junior forward finished with her first career double-double, charting a career-best 24 points and 10 rebounds on a nine for 12 shooting performance from the field.

Defensively, the Falcons were busy completely taking Wolff out of the game, as the Saints’ guard did not attempt a second-half shot until just 9:20 remained in the contest. She finished 0-4 from the floor in the final 20 minutes, playing in every second until St. Lawrence emptied its bench with under a minute to go.

“Coach asked me if I wanted her, and I told him I did,” said Lobach, who drew early second-half coverage on Wolff. “Early in the game I think we were just angry with how things were going. I took a little bit of a risk (guarding Wolff in the second half) in not helping as much on others’ penetration, but it wound up alright.”

Lobach did her part on the offensive end of the court as well, scoring 15 points on a six of eight shooting performance. Ten of those points came in the first half, however, as Lobach did her best to trade punches with Wolff.

With the Saints’ leader being relegated to a non-factor late, St. Lawrence simply did not have the firepower to keep up. A layup and three ball from the Saints’ Katie Palmer cut Messiah’s 52-35 lead to a 52-42 difference with nine minutes to play, but a layup from Lobach and a baseline triple from junior Katie Kalb rebuilt a 57-42 advantage with 6:04 remaining.

Following a layup from the Saints’ Lauren Sischo, Shani took a beautiful pass from Lobach and scored a layup plus a foul, turning the game into a 60-44 contest with just 3:43 to go.

St. Lawrence would get no closer than the final 15-point margin.

Assists were credited to Messiah for seven of Shani’s nine baskets in the game (the other two were tip-ins), as the squad finished with 15 helpers to just 14 turnovers, the seventh time this season the Falcons finished on the positive side of the equation. Miller’s team also held St. Lawrence 17.4 points under its season average, keeping the Saints from the golden number of 64: St. Lawrence possessed a 17-1 record on the year when tallying 64 or more points in games — the team finished 7-4 in games it failed to reach that plateau.

“I thought St. Lawrence took some chances defensively when they got behind that they did not take early,” Miller said. “Their rotations weren’t quite as good and we became aggressive attacking the basket, finding Sal for some dump offs. And that goes back to last summer. We knew we had to work on our quickness with the ball if we wanted to get better. Tonight that paid off for us.”

Perhaps most impressive was Messiah’s collective poise throughout the game, as the Falcons’ big run came after falling behind for the first — and only — occasion in the contest. After winning its previous 10 games by an average of 23.2 points, Lobach said that fear never crept into her head Saturday night.

“I’m never really nervous about our team,” she said. “As a senior you try to block that out, the fact that if you lose this is your last game. I don’t even go there. But compared to other years I’m much more calm.”

That sentiment was echoed by Miller, who had seen his post-season run end at this juncture in the previous two seasons. Messiah will now look to make it to the ‘Elite 8’ for the third time in program history, while at the same time standing just one win away from equaling the single-season record of the 2002-2003 squad, which finished 28-3.

“There’s chemistry and then there’s accountability, and this team has both at incredible levels,” Miller said. “It’s not all about fun and we-love-each other, but it’s about keeping people in line and bringing people along. The things that are happening with this team this year, the inner things people from the outside don’t see. . .that’s why we’re still playing. Our seniors and upperclassmen have taken care of the details. It’s a special group.”

Messiah knows its next game date and opponent— Friday against the University of Rochester, ranked 22nd in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll — but will wait to find out the time and location of that game, as the NCAA will announce its Sweet 16 information sometime within the next 48 hours. Check back to this site for the most up-to-date information regarding Messiah’s post-season run. For an updated bracket of the 64 team-field and those that remain, click here.