La Plume, PA – Trailing by 12 points with four and a half minutes remaining in Saturday's non-conference men's basketball opener against Messiah College, host Keystone College mounted a late comeback bid that fell just short as the Falcons held on for an 84-81 win to improve to 2-0 on the season.
 
The two teams remained within a single possession of one another over the first 11:50 of Saturday's non-conference tilt before Messiah opened up a 28-22 advantage with 8:10 remaining in the first half.  Keystone (0-1) cut their deficit to two points at 30-28 with five minutes left in the opening stanza, but the Falcons outscored the Giants 9-5 the rest of the period to take a 39-33 lead into halftime.
 
Geoff Boyle led all scorers with 10 points in the first half for Messiah, who got seven points apiece from Micah Brown and Jonah Meredith in the period.  The Falcons shot 48.4 percent from the field in the first half while going 2-6 from three-point range and 7-9 from the free throw line.
 
Eric Hardaway (Clarks Summit, PA/Abington Heights) paced Keystone while James Cooper (Freehold, NJ/Pius X) netted five points in the first 20 minutes of play.  The Giants hit on 43.3 percent of their shots from the floor in the half while going 3-10 from beyond the arc and 4-7 from the charity stripe.
 
Keystone battled back in the second half and eventually took a 46-45 lead on a Cooper trey at the 15:09 mark, but Messiah answered right back with a three-pointer of their own on their next trip down the floor to go back in front for good.  The Falcons extended their lead to 77-65 lead with 4:35 left on the clock.
 
Trailing 81-70 with just under three minutes remaining, Keystone rattled of eight straight points to draw to within three points with 21 seconds remaining when Tyreek Peeples (Philadelphia, PA/Girard College) connected on a pair of free throws.  Following a pair of made free throws by the Falcons, Devin Williams (Monticello, NY/Monticello) made good on a three-point play to make it an 83-81 game.  Messiah hit the front end of a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game with nine seconds left.  Keystone called a timeout with five seconds remaining to draw up a play for a game-tying three-point attempt, but a shot by the hosts at the buzzer hit off the front of the remain to preserve Messiah's victory.
 
Boyle finished with a game-high 20 points to go along with eight boards to lead Messiah while Brown finished with 19 points.  Meredith tallied 14 points and eight rebounds while Luke Cable added 10 points and a game-high nine assists.
 
Messiah shot 50 percent from the field for the game, 35.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 68.2 percent from the free throw line while holding a slim, 38-35 edge in rebounds.
 
Williams led Keystone with 16 points off the bench to go along with six rebounds and two blocked shots.  Hardaway finished the contest with 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds while Cooper totaled 13 points.   Peeples added 10 points, three assists, and two steals while Devin Stricklin (Midland, TX/Pro Vision Prep) also dished out a trio of helpers.
 
ShaShawn Drayton (Monticello, NY/Monticello) blocked a pair of shots in his collegiate debut while Khyle Diaz (East Miramar, FL/Pembroke Pines Charter) added a pair of steals for the Giants, who finished the game shooting 43.1 percent from the floor, 30 percent from three-point land, and 75.8 percent from the line.
 
Keystone will return to action next Friday night at the Chuck Resler Tournament hosted by the University of Rochester.  The Giants will take on the host Yellowjackets at 8:00 p.m. on Friday before taking on either Vassar College or Ohio Northern on Saturday.