Johns Hopkins made the trip to Central Pennsylvania twice in the past week and might be happy to not make that trip again anytime soon.
The Blue Jays dropped a 65-43 decision to Messiah on Tuesday at Brubaker Auditorium just a couple of days after losing to Dickinson 68-61 at the Kline Center on Saturday.
Blue Jay coach Nancy Funk, who coached the Messiah team for nine years posting a record of 126 wins and 89 losses in the years prior to Mike Miller, returned to the Grantham campus and watched the present Falcons shoot 54 percent to run away with the victory.
Funk has been at Johns Hopkins since she left the Messiah campus.
Messiah rolled out to 4-0 and 6-2 leads behind the inside tandem of Michele Schleich and Dori Gyori, the Hungarian student who played locally at Mechancisburg last year. After Carlisle product Julie Henninger scored for the Falcons, they went cold while adjusting to a different defense of the Blue Jays.
John’s Hopkins (4-4 overall) ran off six straight points and led the Falcons 10-6 and eventually 14-10 before the Falcons got their act together.
Messiah (2-0 Commonwealth, 6-0 overall) ran off 12 consecutive points and never looked back. They extended the lead to 28-19 at the half.
Hopkins scored two buckets to open the second half but the Falcons ran off 12 more points and led 40-23 and simply extended the lead from there as the Blue Jays never cut the lead to less than 18 points.
Gyori had her second consecutive double-double as she totaled 13 points and 11 rebounds. Schleich added 13 points and eight rebounds while Henninger added 12 points on six of eight shooting. Henninger also added seven dishes, four steals and three rebounds.
“We have shot the ball well so far this year,“ said Falcon coach Miller. “This is the best we have played in a game this year. We passed the ball well inside and we finished in the paint. We actually extended the lead in the first half with Julie (Henninger) sitting on the bench and two freshmen on the floor. Julie sets the tone and has really taken on the leadership role. She defends the best player on the other team and is all over the floor.”
Hopkins shot 29 percent and missed all six of its treys. It made 13 of 16 foul shots while the Falcons made 13 of 20. That was in stark contrast to Saturday where Dickinson shot 37 freebies while Hopkins shot only seven foul shots.
Messiah, which rosters only one senior and one junior routinely had three or four freshmen on the floor at the same time. Guards Nicky Hess and Jordan Seiz started with sophomore Anna Walker coming on in relief. Gyori and Schleich, the junior, and Henninger manned the front court and the Falcons got some good minutes from freshmen Julia Groves and Kira Maier. Each scored six points.
Lyndsay Burton led the Blue Jays with 12 points while Nia Joseph, a former Georgia Tech recruit, added 11 points.
Funk was not available for comment after the game.
Messiah travels to the Meadowlands Wednesday for a 3:00pm game against Lehman before returning to Brubaker for a Saturday 7:00pm tip off against DeSales University.
FALCONS 65 BLUE JAYS 43
Johns Hopkins 19 24 -43
Messiah 28 37 -65
Blue Jays (43)
Anastasia Wynn 1-6 2-2 4; Monica Mitchell 1-3 0-0 2; Lyndsay Burton 4-9 4-4 12; Steph Kielb 1-2 0-0 2; Stephanie Fong 1-3 2-2 4; Nia Joseph 4-10 3-4 11; KaraLea Follmer 1-2 0-0 2; Kat Fox 0-1 1-2 1; Siobhan Callanan 0-2 1-2 1; Alex Vassial 2-5 0-0 4; TOTALS: 15-52 13-16 43
3 Point goals (0-6)
Falcons (65)
Nicky Hess 4-9 0-0 9; Jordan Seiz 0-6 2-5 2; Dori Gyori 4-4 5-6 13; Julie Henninger 6-8 0-0 12; Michele Schleich 5-6 3-5 13; Julia Groves 2-6 2-2 6; Megan Shipe 0-2 1-2 1; Karolena Szolack 1-1 0-0 3; Kira Maier 3-4 0-0 6; TOTALS: 25-46 13-20 65
3 point goals: 2-10(Hess 1-5, Seiz 0-2, Shipe 0-2, Szolack 1-1)
