ERIE, Pa.—The Mercyhurst men's basketball team will play Fairmont State in its first game of the NCAA tournament on Saturday night.
Who: Mercyhurst (23-7) vs. Fairmont State (22-8)
When: Saturday, March 16th, 2019 (7:30 PM)
Where: Indiana, Pa.
Live Stats: Click Here
Live Video: Click Here
PSAC Finals Summary Against IUP (March 10th)
Patrick Smith led the Lakers with 15 points.
Jason Massey recorded another double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and led the team with two blocks.
In the first half, IUP had an early lead before Mercyhurst (23-7) went on a 6-0 run to give the Lakers a 12-11 lead. Diaz would then lay in a basket for the Crimson Hawks regaining the lead and never looking back. This would start an IUP 16-3 run to head into the half up 29-16.
Indiana, Pa. (29-2) opened up the half pushing its lead to 16 before a
MiyKah McIntosh layup would start a 9-0 run for the Lakers cutting the deficit to nine, 36-27. Just under the 10 minute mark of the second half,
Nicholas Lang hit the Lakers first and only three of the game going 1-17 from the floor cutting the lead back down to nine.
Armoni Foster would answer Lang's three pushing the IUP lead back up to 12. With 1:31 left in the game,
Patrick Smith cut the deficit to only seven off of an and-one layup. The Crimson Hawks wouldn't allow MU to cut the deficit much more and would close out the game winning 56-49.
Leading the Lakers
- Massey leads MU in scoring averaging 15.6 per game and has been nominated first team all-conference in the PSAC West Division
- In rebounds, Smith leads the team with 8.8 per game placing him fifth in the PSAC
- Smith was also nominated Second team all-region
- From behind the Arc, Pratapas leads the conference in three-point field goal percentage (.535)
- Ellis Jr. averages 4.2 assists and is tenth in the conference
- Ferreira defends the rim on for MU averaging 1.6 blocks per game and is fourth in the PSAC
Laker Facts
- MU is ninth in the conference in points per game averaging 76.3
- On the defensive side, the Lakers have the number one defense in the conference and ranked second in the country only allowing 60.7 points per game
- In other categories in the conference, Mercyhurst is first in scoring margin (15.7), first in three-point field goal percentage (.400), fifth in three-point field goals made (8.8) and fourth in field goal percentage (.475)
- For the third time in five years, the Lakers have finished the regular season with 20 win
- Mercyhurst is fifth in the nation in scoring margin (16.1) and 14th in turnover margin (4.5)
Scouting Fairmont State
- Guard Vonte Montgomery averages 17.8 points per game leading the Fighting Falcons
- Jason Jolly is right behind him in scoring averaging 17.5 per game
- Montgomery also leads the team in boards with 8.9 per game
- As a team, Fairmont State averages 85.8 points per which ranks them 25th in the country
- The Fighting Falcons are coming off a loss in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament semfinials, 85-67, to Notre Dame (Ohio)
Previous Meetings
Fairmont State leads the all-time series 4-1 over MU. The Last time these two teams met was in the first round of the NCAA tournament in the 2014-15 season. FSU went on to win that game, 68-63.
Next Up: If the Lakers prevail over FSU, they will play the winner of West Chester and IUP on Sunday.
