What happens when the shooting team can't shoot?

That was the questioned posed by Lancaster Bible College Men's Basketball Head Coach Pete Beers when asked how he would describe his team's opening night performance against Messiah. The Chargers shot just 30 percent and could not overcome a hot-shooting Falcons squad and lost 68-58 in their 2010-11 season opener.

David Fernandez and Andy Hawk each had 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Falcons. Tyler Ritzman also had 15 points for Messiah, who defeated LBC for the fourth consecutive season.

"Messiah was a great first game opponent," Beers said. "They rebounded very well and wore us out in the first half. At the same time, to shoot 30 percent and have your opponent shoot 58% and only lose by 10 points, there were lots of positives for us."

Two of those positives were the Chargers' foul shooting (17-of-23) and their lack of turnovers (only 11). However, Messiah's 38-24 advantage on the boards was too much to overcome.

"We protected the ball tonight, but we simply did not protect the paint," Beers said.

After trailing by seven at halftime and seeing the deficit grow to as many as 12 in the second half, the Chargers mounted a comeback, going on an 11-0 run midway through the second half, spearheaded by an entire team effort. After layups by Brett Derr and Kody Koser, two three-pointers by Eric Nulf and Kevin Keltner cut the lead to three. A steal and bucket by Madison Warfel slashed the deficit to one, but that was as close as LBC would get.

Fernandez, Hawk and Ritzman combined for 16 of Messiah's final 19 points and put the game away.

"They defended Madison well all night long and we didn't set up some of our guys as well as we should have," Beers said. "We had good looks most of the night, the shots just didn't fall tonight."

Koser led the Chargers with 15 points and seven boards. Andrew Risser, playing for the first time since the 2008-09 season, had 10 points and four steals in 34 minutes. Keith Keltner also had 10 points for LBC.

Despite losing their season opener for the third time in four seasons, Beers was pleased with the team's effort.

"We battled hard tonight," Beers said. "We will get stronger from tonight and look forward to playing this weekend."

Notes:
-LBC is 0-5 all-time against Messiah.

-The Falcons have beat the Chargers by 10 the last two seasons (77-67 in 2009).

-LBC will face Mount Aloysius on Friday in the opening game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament in Cresson, Pa. Game time is set for 8:00 p.m. The Chargers will face either St. Vincent or Penn State DuBois, depending on Friday night's result.

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