ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst men's basketball team was unable to overcome the fast start by the visiting Slippery Rock University as they fell on Wednesday night at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center by a score of 62-52 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division action.
Will Robinson Jr. and Micah Till put the Lakers behind the eight-ball early as they helped the guest storm out to an 18-0 lead in the opening 8:09.
Michael Bradley and
MiyKah McIntosh put in back-to-back three-pointers to get Mercyhurst on the board and close the gap to 18-6., but the Rock answered back in a big way as they mounted a 10-3 charge with
Steve Cannady providing the only home offense leaving them behind 28-9 with 6:08 to go. The Lakers tried to climb the mountain as triples from
Trystan Pratapas,
Cameron Gross, and McIntosh along with a jumper by
Joel Ufele finished an 11-2 run by the hosts to bring the score to 30-20. Deontae Robertson would lay one in at the horn to have the Rock in front by a dozen 32-20 at half.
Till and Robinson Jr. tried to keep Mercyhurst at bay to crack open the second half extending the advantage to 14 at 39-25 with 16:47 left. McIntire and Bradley canned a couple of threes and Gross added some offense as well to help Mercyhurst go on a 12-4 push to close the deficit to just six, 43-37 at the 8:38 mark. LaShon Lindsey, Amante Britt, and Robertson restored the distance between the sides with a 7-0 run upping the lead back out to 50-37 right with five minutes remaining. A foul shot from McIntosh and another three by McIntire kept the Lakers within shouting distance at 56-50 at the 19-minute mark. However, the Rock outpaced the home side 6-2 down the stretch for the 62-52 win.
Mercyhurst shot just 30% from the floor, 44% beyond the arc, and 58.3% at the foul line. Slippery Rock was 45.8% in the field, 41.7% from deep, and 76.5% foul shooting. The Lakers dominated the bench scoring 22-6, but the Rock outscored the hosts 26-8 in the paint.
McIntosh led the Lakers off the bench with 17 points, while McIntire added a dozen. He also fell one rebound shy of a double-double with a team-high nine. Bradley chipped in eight and Gross finished with seven. Ufele had seven boards.
Robinson Jr. paced the Rock with 21 points. Till had 15 and hauled in a team-best nine rebounds. Britt contributed 10 points. Robertson had seven points and seven boards.
The Lakers head out on the road for their next game on Saturday, January 25 when they visit California (Pa.) for a 3 pm start.
