GETTYSBURG, Pa. – A top-20 battle inside Bream Gym came right down to the wire with No. 11 Messiah College picking up the go-ahead bucket with 20 seconds left and holding on to defeat No. 19 Gettysburg College 74-69 in a non-conference contest Tuesday night.
 
In a premier matchup between two defending conference champions and NCAA Division III Championship qualifiers, Messiah (2-1) overcame a double-figure deficit in the fourth quarter to take down host Gettysburg (0-1). The two programs combined for 53 victories a season ago.
 
Five Bullets reached double-figures with senior Emma Dorshimer (Jenkintown, Pa./Jenkintown) pouring in 16. Sophomore Meredith Brown (Landisburg, Pa./West Perry) picked up 13 points, while juniors Emma Hahner (Forest Hill, Md./C. Milton Wright) and Ashley Gehrin (Chester, N.J./West Morris Mendham) each tallied 10 points. Hahner also grabbed eight rebounds. Freshman Carly Rice (Pennington, N.J./The Pennington School) came off the bench for 13 points on the strength of a trio of three-pointers.
 
Maci Thornton scored 17 of her game-high 27 points in the second half to lead the Falcons. Kristen Smoluk tallied 10 points, while Alecia Rohrer provided eight points and 10 rebounds.
 
Messiah, the two-time defending Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth champ, opened the game with an 11-4 advantage following a steal and lay-up by Smoluk midway through the opening quarter. Gettysburg, the defending Centennial Conference champion, rallied with its own 11-4 run to end the quarter tied 15-15.
 
The Bullets pulled ahead in the second quarter. Carrying a 20-19 advantage, the hosts turned in 10 of the next 14 points, closing with three-pointer by junior Kiera Cesareo (Randolph, N.J./Randolph) and a lay-up by Brown for a 30-23 advantage with 1:07 to go before halftime. Thornton helped close the gap to 32-28 with a three-pointer to cap the first-half scoring.
 
Gettysburg continued to hold the upper-hand in the third period and extended the lead to nine (43-34) on a driving lay-up by Gehrin with just over five minutes remaining in the frame. Back-to-back buckets by Rice and fellow first-year Seanna McNamara (Berwyn, Pa./The Episcopal Academy) pushed the advantage to 10 (54-44) with 9:26 left in the game.
 
Messiah answered each Gettysburg tally in turn and eventually chipped away at the deficit. Following a pair of free throws by Rice, the Falcons reeled off the next six points to slice the lead down to 61-60 with less than four minutes remaining. The teams traded buckets over the next several minutes until Thornton knocked down a game-tying three-pointer with 52 seconds left. The Falcons stopped the Bullets on the ensuing possession and put the ball in the hands of Thornton for the potential go-ahead bucket. Her lay-up trickled off the left side of the rim, but Rohrer pulled down the board and put it back in for a 70-68 lead.
 
Gettysburg turned the ball over on the following possession and Thornton swished a pair of attempts at the charity stripe to push the lead to four (72-68) with 10 seconds left. Gehrin hit one of two free throws before Thornton iced the game with two more freebies.
 
Messiah finished 24-of-59 (40.7 percent) from the floor, including 9-of-17 (52.9 percent) in the fourth quarter. The Falcons scored 29 points off turnovers by Gettysburg. The Bullets finished 24-of-58 (41.4 percent) from the field and out-rebounded Messiah 43-28.
 
Gettysburg will take on Juniata College on the opening day of the Lebanon Valley College Tournament this Friday at 7 p.m.