BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - The Mercyhurst men's basketball team stopped a two-game skid using a strong second half performance outscoring the opponent 40-27, to knock off the host Bloomsburg University Huskies by a score of 77-59 on Friday afternoon in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference play at the Nelson Fieldhouse.
The game was on the seesaw early as Bloomsburg took a slim 6-5 edge with 17:36 remaining in the first on a jumper for Justin Anderson.
Michael Bradley and
MiyKah McIntosh combined for six consecutive points to go ahead 11-6 at the 4:24 mark. McIntosh would knock down two more foul shots, before the Huskies found the scoreboard again on a layup by Travis Elmore. With the Lakers up 13-9,
Cameron Gross drilled a three-pointer and
Andrew Seager added a layup to push the advantage out to 18-11 with 12:48 to go. Ky Mauras answered with a triple of his own to cut it to 18-14, but a slam from
Joel Ufele along with a triple by
Trystan Pratapas and bucket for Seager extended the visiting lead to 25-16. Mauras and Anderson each hit a pair on the foul line to close within 25-20. A Mauras free throw made it 28-23, but
Nicholas Lang answered back with a pull-up jumper and McIntosh put home a layup to open the margin back out to eight 32-24 with 4:26 left. Four straight by Mauras and a Max Wagner basket brought the deficit down to 34-32, before Seager drilled a triple out of the deep right corner for the halftime score of 37-32.
A three for McIntosh and a hook shot from Ufele gave the Lakers five straight to open the second and opened up the largest lead to that point 42-32. Wagner tried to slow the momentum down with a layup, but a triple delivered by Gross and layups for both McIntire as well as Gross made it 49-34 at the 2:37 mark leading to a Huskies timeout. McIntosh added five more along with a three by McIntire made it 56-37 just five minutes into the frame. Sam Saxton and
Steve Cannady exchanged threes to maintain the 19-point cushion at 59-40. A layup by Lang and three from McIntosh kept the Lakers up big at 65-48 with 8:40 remaining. Anderson would split a pair on the foul line to cut the Lakers lead to 68-55, but after a pair of makes by Gross the advantage returned to 15 (70-55) just over five minutes left. Seager, McIntosh, and Lang helped the Lakers finish on a 7-4 run to cruise over the finish line to the 77-59 win.
Mercyhurst shot 45.5% from the floor, 44% outside the arc, and 50% on the line, while Bloomsburg went 40.8% in the field, 42.9% from deep and 72.7% at the foul line.
The Lakers were led by a game-high 27 from McIntosh, and Ufele added 12 to complete the double-digit scorers. Seager chipped in nine, with Gross finishing with eight. Ufele was the leading rebounder with seven, while Gross and Bradley added five.
Bloomsburg got 14 from Mauras and 12 by Anderson to lead the team. Maqi Watson pulled down a game-high 11 boards.
Mercyhurst is back at it tomorrow night at East Stroudsburg with tip off at 7:30 pm.
