MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – Penn State Harrisburg men's basketball player Will Doyle (Franklin, Va. / Tidewater Academy) put on a show for the standing room only crowd packed into the Capital Union Building on Wednesday night, Nov. 20. After missing the Lions' last outing due to injury, the senior captain returned to the lineup with a vengeance and scored a career-high 28 points to go along with his five rebounds and five assists. Unfortunately for the Blue & White, Doyle's stout individual effort wasn't enough as Messiah played spoiler to the team's home-opener and used a steady diet of three-balls to best the Lions 74-60 in front of the largest crowd ever gathered to watch a basketball game at Penn State Harrisburg.
"I thought our effort was there and I thought our kids played really hard," said Penn State Harrisburg head coach Don Friday. "With playing really hard, though, there's a factor of playing smart and with purpose. At times tonight, we lacked that."
No amount of smarts could slow down Messiah's impressive shooting from beyond the arc. Three of the Falcons' first four field goals came from downtown and the visitors rode that hot start to an early 17-10 advantage.
Back-to-back buckets by Doyle and a strong layup from senior captain Kenny Stone (Philadelphia, Pa. / Scotland) drew the Lions to within four at 20-16 with 9:45 left in the first half.
From there, Messiah used a 9-2 run to pad its lead and give itself a cushion that would prove crucial when the Blue & White made pushes in the second half. The run culminated with a Brad Bolen three-pointer that upped the Falcons' advantage to 29-18 at the 6:21 mark.
Trailing 40-27 at the break, the Lions came out rejuvenated in the second half and put together an 11-5 run that got them back into the game. Penn State Harrisburg clamped down defensively and shut out Messiah for nearly five and a half minutes. During that stretch, Doyle came to life and scored seven-straight points, bookended by layups by Stone and freshman Winton Lyle (Washington, D.C. / Bullis School).
But just when it looked like the home team was on the verge of making a game-changing push, the three-ball proved to be the Falcons' best friend once more as Scott Bolen netted a trifecta that quieted the electric hometown faithful and pushed Messiah's advantage back to double-digits with 12 minutes left to play.
Penn State Harrisburg cut the deficit to seven points on two more occasions, once following a Stone free throw at the 11:04 mark and again following a Doyle three-pointer with 9:08 remaining in regulation, but the men were unable to piece together enough defensive stops and bunches of scoring to draw any closer.
The fact that Messiah players drained three more momentum-halting three-pointers down the stretch didn't help, either.
"In the first half, we let (Messiah) out on a big run and give them credit for taking advantage of some things and making game-winning plays," said Friday. "In the second half we made a really good run but on the defensive end we didn't handle what we needed to do. It's about trying to get stops and we talked to our kids after the game and over the next few days we're going to go back and work on us in practice and break down some of those fundamentals that way."
Friday was pleased with his team's offensive output, citing that despite his players running this system for barely more than a month, they are off to a promising start. Now it's just a matter of sustaining the good over the course of an entire outing.
"It's all about consistency moving forward," he said.
Stone finished with eight points and a team-high seven boards to go along with three assists and two blocks. Junior Joey Farthing (Lancaster, Pa. / Hempfield) went 4-5 from the field, netting ten points, grabbing five boards and rejecting three Falcon shots. Lyle added six points and five rebounds off the bench.
The Lions shot 46.2 percent from three-point range (6-13), a number that would be more than satisfying if not for the fact that the Falcons shot the lights out from distance, as evidenced by their 55 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Still, the night belonged to Doyle. The versatile shooting guard was efficient, going 9-15 from the field, including 4-7 from three-point land, and 6-6 from the charity stripe. When the Lions needed a big shot, he connected. After three outings, Doyle leads the team in scoring with 16 points per game. The Blue & White crowd was vocal in appreciation of the senior's performance. His coach expressed his delight with Doyle's effort and those cheering him on.
"I thought that Will Doyle's performance was really, really good, especially considering that he's been out the past few days dealing with some injuries," said Friday. "I thought the crowd tonight and the turnout by the community and our student body was fantastic. I hope that they'll continue to grow and support us and trust us to be a part of our program because that was a just a great atmosphere."
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Photos courtesy of Penn State Harrisburg photographer Victoria Masse
