Box Score
GLENSIDE, Pa.: Messiah College's Derrick Mosley went 7 for 8 from downtown and finished with a game high 28 points as the Falcons narrowly escaped Kuch Center Gymnasium with a 62-61 victory over host Arcadia in today's Commonwealth Conference match-up. Junior Khalief Trawick scored 15 points to lead the Knights.
Messiah improves to 10-2 within the league (16-2 overall) and secures their spot for the conference championship tournament with today's win. Arcadia drops to 2-10 in the Commonwealth and 9-14 overall.
Both teams came out scorching the nets as the initial six field goals of the game were all from beyond the three point arc. Three apiece as Khalief Trawick hit 2 from distance and Jason Thompson added 1 for the Knights while Derek Mosley had all three long-range shots for the Falcons. The next seven minutes saw Messiah go on a 16-6 run for a 25-15 lead. During the run, the Falcons hit four more three-pointers, including two more from Mosley.
Just when it looked like Messiah may pull away, Arcadia freshman Daniel Shiramizu led a run of his own, converting a layup then leading the offensive rush back to back times hitting Thompson for two straight threes. Shiramizu's 2 points and 2 assists over those two minutes fueled the Knights in cutting Messiah's lead to one, 29-28, with 5:35 in the half. The Falcons answered with one more 3 point field goal from Dan Mosley, giving them eight in the opening twenty. The teams would trade buckets to close the first half that ended 34-30 with Messiah in the lead.
The Knights came out of the locker room a little slow as they found themselves down 46-35 with 12:31 on the clock. The Knights picked up the energy on defense and in a matter of minutes after a Travis Saltus pull-up jumper, Arcadia cut their 11 point deficit to two, 47-45, with 9:17 remaining. However, the Falcons responded pushing the lead back to eight with 6:15 in regulation. But the Knights would not go away as they began to press and create turnovers. After back to back buckets from Aaron Lee-Webb, Trawick converted on a layup and the score read 56-54 in Messiah's favor.
The teams would trade buckets back and forth. After another Lee-Webb jumper with the clock reading 54 seconds, the Falcons still held a 2 point lead, 60-58. All the Knights needed was a stop and they would have a chance but they could not hang on to the rebound as it trickled out of bounds. Now forced to foul, Arcadia sent the player of the game Derek Mosley to the line with 13 seconds. Mosley converted both and seemed to put the game out of reach until Thompson knocked down a 3 pointer from the corner, assisted by Colin McCarthy from the baseline. With the score 62-61 Falcons with 5 seconds remaining, Arcadia was forced to foul again and sent Mosley back to the line. Mosley missed and the Knights grabbed the carom off the rim, trying to push for one last shot but to no avail as Messiah stole the ball and the victory, 62-61.
Both teams shot well from the floor, Messiah out-shooting Arcadia 59% to 48.9% overall from the field but 45.5% from three-point range to the Knight's 7 of 14 effort (50%). Free throw shooting is where the Knights will look back and wish they could of done more as they finished 10-24 (41.7%) to Messiah's 6-11 (54.5%).
Along with Mosley's game high of 28, David Fernandez scored 17 for the Falcons and Trey Ritzman 8.
Thompson finished 4 for 7 from distance scoring 12 points while Rashon Brock and Lee-Webb each finished with 9 points for the Knights.
The Knights travel to Reading, PA to face off against Albright College this Tuesday(2/14) at 8 p.m. The Lions topped the Knights 85-84 back on Jan. 25 in a double overtime thriller.
