BOX SCORE

Reading, Pa. (Feb. 8, 2010) - In order to stage a great comeback a team needs to dig itself a great hole.

Alvernia University (14-7, 5-5) dug the hole Monday--a 17-point second-half deficit--and had a 3-point shot to take a lead in the last minute, but couldn't complete the comeback in a 75-71 loss to Messiah Colege (13-7, 6-4) in Commonwealth Conference men's basketball action at the Physical Education Center.

In a match-up of the two teams tied for the fourth and final playoff spot, Messiah earned its second win over the Crusaders and pulled into a third-place tie with Elizabethtown College with four games to go in the conference schedule.

The Falcons jumped out to an eight-point lead hitting back-to-back 3s for a 12-4 edge.  They finished the night 6-for-13 from the arc and a scorching 28-for-50 (56 percent) from the floor.

After Brian Nerney (Middletown, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) knocked down an answering 3 to cut the gap to five, Messiah scored six straight to open up an 11-point lead.

The lead hit 13 points, 25-12 at the 9:41 mark of the first half on a Chris Yoder layup.

"Our defense was bad," said Alvernia head coach Mike Miller after the game.  "Some of those shots were uncontested. They did make some shots, but again, they're college players."

He's consistently laid the rather nondescript, college player label on a number of teams this season, meaning basically that they're college players, if you give them open shots they're going to make them.

The Crusaders started to make shots for the first time Monday with a comeback late in the first half.

Zach Fenstermacher (Reading, Pa./Central Catholic) and Tad Gillis (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby) knocked down back-to-back 3s to cut the deficit to seven at the 6:50 mark, and three minutes later senior center Nick Rivera (Reading, Pa./Holy Name) grabbed one of his two offensive rebounds and scored on the putback to cut the gap to three, 29-26.

Rivera, the fourth-ranked rebounder in the conference, finished the night without a single defensive carom and had his second lowest collection of the season.  His lowest was zero boards at Messiah where he fouled out in 10 minutes.

"It's out frontline," Miller said answering the question about how his team got outrebounded 38-21.  "Our big guys get the credit when we win they're gonna take the [blame] when we lose.  We didn't match up well with them.  Our forwards couldn't guard their forwards."

After Messiah took an eight-point lead into halftime, 28-36 the forwards got a shot at redemption to start the second half, but instead dug the hole deeper.

Over the first eight and a half minutes of the second half Messiah put together a 17-8 run that pushed the lead to 17 points, the largest of the game.

"It was our worst defensive effort of the year," Miller said.  When asked if it was uninspired, he simply said, "Yup."

The Crusaders got a shade of inspiration off the bench when Miller inserted freshman reserve EJ Logan (Frederick, Md./Frederick) down 17 with 10:49 to play.

Logan scored on a pull-up jumper on his first possession and sparked Gillis to an and-one down the lane.  Rivera was juiced up enough to slam home his second offensive board, and Seth Cornell (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor) hit back-to-back 3s then a pair of free throws that pulled Alvernia within seven, 60-53 with 6:39 to play.

Messiah pushed it back to 10, but Logan scored all seven for Alvernia during a 7-2 run that cut the gap to five with 1:40 to play.

"He's been practicing well," Miller said of Logan.  "That's why he got his shot.  He just earned some minutes, that's for sure."

Messiah scored a pair of free throws from Jamie Yoder on the next possession.  The Falcons finished the game 13-of-17 from the stripe, but nailed their last eight when they needed them.

Cornell scored six of seven as Alvernia put together another 7-2 spurt over the next 50 seconds pulling within two, 71-69 on Cornell's triple from the left elbow.

An aggressive trap on the right sideline turned into a steal for the Crusaders and the bouncing ball found its way to Logan in the left corner, but his potential go-ahead 3 was off the mark.  The Falcons secured the rebound and hit four more free throws around an uncontested layup for Cornell to close it out.

The Falcons put four players in double figures led by Kyle Snyder who totaled 18 points.  The leading rebounder in the league also grabbed a game-high 13 boards.  Alvernia got a game-high 22 points from Cornell--18 in the second half--and 15 from Gillis.

Miller has been consistent with his postgame message all year long and stole one from from every other coach looking to the last four games on the schedule.

"Gotta take it one game at a time," Miller said.  "They gotta learn they can't play with no urgency defensively and you can't do that in these games."

These games start Wednesday when Widener comes to town.

Alvernia trails Messiah by a game, but must pass the Falcons outright following the two-game sweep.  The Crusaders split with Elizabethtown, but don't necessarily want to count on the tie-breaker.

The rest of the schedule is at Lycoming Saturday and at Albright next Tuesday followed by the regular season finale next Saturday at home versus Lebanon Valley.

Messiah 75, Alvernia 71