ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst men's basketball team shot 45.6% from the field and went 14-26 (53.8%) outside the arc to get past the visiting University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Mountain Cats on Wednesday night at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. With the victory the Lakers control their own destiny to a bye in the first round of the upcoming PSAC Tournament.
UPJ got the early lead with a layup from Caiden Landis, before triples from
MiyKah McIntosh and
Nicholas Lang along with a
Cameron Gross bucket gave the host an 8-2 edge just over two minutes in. A three by Landis and a layup by John Paul Kromka brought the guests to within 8-7 at the 4:54 mark.
Zach McIntire, McIntosh and Gross put together an 11-0 rampage to lead by a dozen 19-7. Marcin Wiszomirski stunted the momentum for a brief moment with a layup, before triples from
Steve Cannady,
Michael Bradley, and McIntosh stretched the advantage out to 28-11 at the halfway point. With Mercyhurst leading 32-17, with 5:19 left Pitt-Johnstown went on the comeback trail as Josh Wise and Kromka scored six straight to cut the deficit down to 32-23. The Lakers would keep the Mountain Cats at bay with threes from McIntire and Cannady coupled with dunks by
Joel Ufele and McIntire had the hosts in front 42-27 heading to the locker room.
Four quick points by Cannady had the home side leading 46-29 with just over a minute gone. Fred Mulbah, Drew Magestro, Kromka, and Wise put together a 9-2 charge for the visitors to get the margin down to 48-38. Five minutes into the second half the Lakers continued holding their double-digit lead with Cannady and Bradley sticking jumpers to make it 52-40. After a couple of scoreless minutes McIntosh and Cannady delivered from deep and Cannady also hit from the mid-range helping the home team rattle off eight consecutive points to bump the lead out to 20 at 60-40 with 12-minutes remaining. Donovian Maxfield and Bradley exchanged triples to maintain that gap. Mercyhurst continued to hold a sizeable gap on their opponents, before an Adam Kline foul shot brought it down to 68-49 to spark a 10-0 charge finished off by a Kromka layup to cut the deficit to 68-60 with 2:43 left. Lang netted the final five points of the game for the Lakers with a triple and two at the stripe to see out the 73-64 win.
Mercyhurst held UPJ to 43.1% shooting from the field, 33.3% beyond the arc, and 66.7% at the foul line. The Lakers had a 21-15 edge in bench scoring along with a 17-4 advantage in points off of turnovers.
Cannady led a group of four Lakers in double-digits with 17, followed by McIntosh (15), Bradley (12), and McIntire (11). Lang, Gross and Ufele combined for 18. Gross had a team-high 10 boards.
Kromka (21), Maxfield (11), and Wise (10) paced the Mountain Cats. Kromka completed the double-double with 11 rebounds.
Postseason Push
Mercyhurst currently occupies the second spot in the PSAC West standings with a one-game lead over UPJ and the season sweep. However, they are just ahead of Cal U who visits the MAC next Wednesday night at 7:30 pm.
On Deck - Local Rival
The Lakers head down the road to Edinboro University on Saturday afternoon for a 3pm start.
