ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst women's basketball team dropped their fourth-straight contest on Friday night falling in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West division play to the visiting Seton Hill University Griffins by a final of 85-62 at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. The final score does not indicate how close the game was as it was tied after one and Seton Hill led by two at half, before outscoring the Lakers 44-23 over the final 20-minutes for the win.
Mercyhurst struck early against the visitors full-court press as
Kori Sidwell and
Nicolete Newman gave the home side a 4-0 lead not even a minute in. A foul by
Amber Renz resulted in two on the line from Katie Nolan to cut it down to 4-2, but Renz made up for it 18-seconds later with a driving layup. The Lakers continued to lead until Courtney Cecere hit a layup to level the score 8-8. Seton Hill would would take their first muti-point lead of the game at 13-10 thanks to a bucket by Samantha Kosmacki. The Griffins continued to hold onto the three-point cushion to the 6:37 mark when Cheyenne Trest made it 15-12, however, Renz answered back with a triple to erase the deficit 15-15. Both teams picked up six points over the final couple of minutes to be tied at 21 after one.
A triple by Sydney Rabold and layup for Madelyn Fischer put the guests ahead 26-23 with 6:50 to go. Three points from
Meghan Komendarek along with a pair at the stripe out of the hands of
Kori Sidwell brought the hosts to within 30-28, however a converted "and one" opportunity by Trest extended the advantage out to 33-28 halfway through the second. The Lakers scored eight of the next ten all in the paints thanks to layups by
Vivian Allison,
Julia Buchman,
Emily Shopene, and Renz to actually claim a slim 36-35 edge. Trest accounted for the Griffins last five points, including a pull-up jumper with five-seconds remaining to lead 41-39 at half.
Lexi Civittolo, Trest, and Nolan came out of the break on a 5-2 push to hold a five-point advantage 46-41 two minutes in. Newman buried a triple and
Lauren Lapertosa hit a layup sparked by a block from Renz at the defensive end to knot the score 46-46. Seton Hill came storming back using an 8-2 charge finished by a bucket for Nolan to reclaim the lead 54-48 with 5:15 to play. Buchman trimmed the margin to 54-50, unfortunately, the guests came back with seven consecutive points to open up a double-digit cushion 61-50 under three minutes left. The Griffins would get a pair at the charity stripe from Nolan for the final points of the frame to head to the fourth up 63-54.
Seton Hill took control of the game in the fourth as Kosmacki knocked down a jumper to cap an 11-2 run to take their largest lead of the game to that point 74-56 at the halfway mark of the final frame. The Lakers only scored six more points the rest of the game with four coming from Lapertosa and a layup by
Rachel Chessar. However, it was not enough with Kelly Weeks hitting the final shot of the contest for the 85-62 final.
Mercyhurst shot 40% from the field, 20% outside the arc, and 77.8% at the line, while Seton Hill was 48.4% for the game, 33.3% from deep, and 90% foul shooting. Both teams were strong in the paint with the Griffins holding a slim 48-46 edge.
Lapertosa led the way with 14, followed by a dozen from Renz. Sidwell picked up eight and Newman added seven in her return from injury. Sidwell and Newman were the leading rebounders each bringing down six.
Nolan paced the Griffins with a double-double scoring a game-high 22 and grabbing 10 boards. Civittolo and Trest each finished with 13, while Tiana Stewart chipped in 11.
The Lakers return to action on Monday, January 6 when they travel to the Indiana Crimson Hawks for PSAC West play at 5:30pm.
