ERIE, Pa.- The Mercyhurst women's basketball team defeated Notre Dame College, 80-70, Friday evening at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. Senior Nikki Frederickson scored a career-high 27 points on 11-14 shooting in the non-conference victory. The win is the Lakers' fifth in six games.
 
The Falcons took a 53-52 lead on a Brittany Reddy free throw with 12:12 left in the game. Freshman Lindsay Stamp made a run to give the Lakers the edge. She made a layup, a jumper, and a lay-in for a personal 6-0 run. NDC hit four straight free throws to get within 58-57 before Stamp made a free throw and then another layup with 7:39 to go.
 
Frederickson split a pair of foul shots and then grabbed her offensive board and laid it in for a 64-57 advantage. Cortney Clark connected from deep, but Stamp followed with a trey to expand the lead with 6:01 remaining. Hurst maintained the edge for the rest of the contest.
 
Notre Dame scored the first four points of the game, but Frederickson made a layup 90 seconds in for Mercyhurst's first points. The visitors went ahead 8-4 and eventually led 14-6 after a Danielle Ledrich lay-in.
 
Megan Hoffman hit a triple and then Kaylee Foster made a pair of layups to make it 16-13 with 12:29 to play in the first half. A three-point play by Molly Ritz gave the Falcons a six-point lead. Frederickson followed with her first three-pointer of the season and then Lindsey Burke hit a trey to cut the deficit to two points.
 
Katie Carbee's trey put Hurst ahead 22-21 with 7:42 left, but the Falcons answered with a free throw and a three-pointer on the same possession. Layups by Stamp and Frederickson put the home team up, and after a Clark three, Stamp converted another bucket to tie the game at 28 with 5:20 left.
 
NDC went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Clark triple. Frederickson scored four more points in the final minutes of the frame, getting the Lakers within four points. Dana Banda hit a shot from 40 feet out at the horn to make it 40-39 at the break.
 
Kelsey Trosch opened the second half with a three-point play, but Notre Dame responded with a Lauren Macer trey and two free throws. Frederickson converted a three-point play of her own to tie the match at 45 three minutes in. Alex Dackin and Hoffman traded threes and then Frederickson's lay-in made it 50-48 with 15:30 to play. Reddy's free throw a few minutes later gave the visitors their final lead of the night.
 
Frederickson scored 27 points. Her previous career high was 20, which she set against Kutztown December 3. The senior hit 11-14 shots and 4-6 free throw attempts. She also posted three rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
 
Stamp had a stellar performance as well, dropping 19 points, including 15 in the second half. She connected on 8-12 shots from the floor and grabbed six boards in 15 minutes of action. Banda added seven points and six assists, while Hoffman contributed eight points, including two treys.
 
Dackin led three Falcons in double figures with 14 points. Clark added 13 and Martha Nagbe scored 10 points.
 
As a team, the Lakers shot 59.6 percent (31-52) from the field, a season high. The last time Hurst shot that well was January 29, when it hit 60.9 percent of its shots from the floor against Indiana (Pa.). Notre Dame hit 22-47 (46.8 percent) shots in the loss.
 
Hurst (5-5) returns to the court next weekend for its final pair of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) crossover contests. The Lakers host Shippensburg and Cheyney. Tip-off for the Shippensburg game is set for 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 6.
 
For a box score of the Notre Dame-Mercyhurst game, please click here.