Grantham, Pa. (Dec. 10, 2016) – Messiah College (9-0, 3-0) used a 40-26 first half advantage to guide it to a 72-48 victory over Alvernia University (0-7, 0-3) Saturday afternoon in MAC Commonwealth women's basketball action at Brubaker Auditorium.

The Falcons built a 13-0 opening run before Torie Zerbi put the Crusaders on the board at the 4:14 mark. The two sides exchanged buckets through the remainder of the first quarter, with Liv Andrefski cutting the Falcons lead to single-digits two minutes into the second quarter as she drained her lone 3 of the game.

Maya Cooper and Miranda Hoover responded to a pair of Messiah field goals to extend the nine-point deficit to 23-14 before Messiah posted six unanswered points for a 29-14 margin.

Again the two squads swapped bucket after bucket until Cooper nailed a 3 before the buzzer as the Falcons took a 40-26 advantage into the half.

Messiah increased its lead 48-28 to start the third quarter, but Hoover, Cooper and Megan Bruno went a combined 6-for-6 from the line to cut the Crusaders deficit back down to 14. However the Falcons proved to be strong from the line as well, using a mixture of foul shots and 3-pointers to take a 59-39 margin into the final frame.

The Falcons just outscored the Crusaders 13-9 in the fourth as Abbie Zerbe netted the last five points of the contest for Alvernia.

Alvernia mirrored Messiah in field goal percentage with both teams shooting 41.9% on the day.

Cooper led the Crusaders with 14 points while Abbie Zerbe added a career-high 10 points. Hoover led Alvernia in boards with 10.

Alvernia is back in action December 13th when they travel to Lycoming College in another MAC Commonwealth Conference match-up beginning at 6:00pm.

Messiah 72, Alvernia 48