GLENSIDE, Pa. – Senior Joe Brown drove to the basket and made the game-winning layup with just six second left on the clock to give the Arcadia University men's basketball team a thrilling 63-62 victory over Messiah College Tuesday night at Alumni Gymnasium.
 
The Knights improved to 13-11 overall and 9-6 in conference play with the win and secured a berth in the Commonwealth Conference Championship Tournament for the second time in three years. Arcadia enters their final game of the regular season Saturday at Widener in a four-way tie for second in the Commonwealth Conference standings along with Alvernia University, Hood College and Stevenson University.
 
The Falcons fell to 13-10 overall and 6-9 in conference play with the loss, and were eliminated from conference tournament contention. This marks the first time since the two teams first met in 2008-09 that Arcadia swept the season series with Messiah.
 
Arcadia trailed by as many as 10 in the first half after scoring the first six points of the game before going into the locker room down nine at the break, 35-26. Messiah led by as many as 13 after sophomore Josh Clippinger knocked down a pair of free throws and senior David Fernandez-Bravo made a layup to open the second half scoring, but the Knights replied with a 16-2 surge that gave them their first lead since the opening minutes, going up 42-41 following a layup from Brown eight and a half minutes into the second period.
 
The two teams traded baskets over the next couple minutes before senior Travis Saltus, who was back in action after missing 11 straight games due to injury, drained a three that started a 10-point run that put Arcadia in the lead. Junior John Landro capped the run when he stepped into a jumper that gave the Knights a 55-46 lead with just under six minutes to go in the contest.
 
The Falcons kept battling and pulled back within two after a bucket from senior Zac Hoy with 1:11 to go, but Saltus answered with a layup at the other end to put Arcadia back up by four, 61-57 with 44 seconds remaining. The two teams then exchanges misses before Hoy hit a layup as he was fouled to bring Messiah back within two, but he would miss the free throw that followed and Clippinger came up with the rebound and made the putback as he was fouled to tie the game at 61. He hit the free that followed to give the Falcons a one-point lead with 22 seconds left.
 
The Knights advanced the ball into the front court and head coach Justin Scott called a time out to draw up a play with 13 seconds to go. Sophomore guard Ryan Kelley took the inbound pass and fed it to brown at the top-left of the key, and he drove to the net, laying in the game-winning shot on the right side of the rim as he drove past Clippinger.
 
Messiah had chance to win that game after getting the ball back with 6.1 seconds left and Hoy had an open look at the rim from the top of the arc, but his three-point attempt was way off target, hitting the backboard to the left of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
 
Brown scored a game-high 18 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists and a game-high six steals to lead Arcadia, while Kelley added 12 points. Saltus chipped in with 10 points after going 4 of 5 from the floor in his first game action since January 5 at Misericordia.
 
Fernandez-Bravo fell just short of a triple-double for Messiah, scoring 18 points with a game-high 10 rebounds and a game-high eight assists, while Clippinger finished the game with 14 points and seven boards. Hoy added 12 points while going just 5 of 14 from the field and 2 of 8 from three. Junior Geoff Boyle registered a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
The Knights will close out the 2014-15 regular season with a 3 p.m. Commonwealth Conference matchup at Widener University.