ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst men's basketball team secured the number two seed on the West side in the upcoming PSAC Tournament with a hard-fought 61-56 victory over the visiting California University of Pennsylvania Vulcans on Wednesday night at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West division action. Before, the game the Lakers honored senior
Trystan Pratapas who was playing in his final regular season game at the MAC.
The game began much like a heavyweight fight with neither side scoring in the opening two minutes. It would be the lone Lakers senior
Trystan Pratapas who got the first points of the evening with a triple.
Cameron Gross scored five consecutive points after Jermaine Hall Jr. picked up a layup to make it 8-2 home side at the 6:53 mark. Brent Pegram stuck a triple to cut it down to 8-5, before a foul shot by
Zach McIntire and pull-up jumper from
Joel Ufele opened the lead back to 11-5. Hall netted four straight trimming the gap to 11-9, but
Steve Cannady delivered from deep and
Michael Bradley hit a jay bumping the advantage out to 16-10 with 8:38 left. Bradley notched the next five Lakers points to make it 21-15 under six minutes to play. Pegram closed the half on a personal 7-0 run to give the Vulcans thier first lead of the game heading into the break at 22-21.
Cal carried the momentum they built at the end of the first half into the second as they started off on a 7-2 run with the lone Lakers bucket coming from Ufele.
MiyKah McIntosh drilled a triple to cut the deficit down to 30-26, before Zyan Collins hit a tough driving layup to bump the lead out to 32-26 with 17:24 left. Gross hit a step-back trey and Cannady muscled to the cup and converted an "old-fashioned" three-point play to cap a 6-0 sprint to get within 34-32. A three from McIntosh and a slam by Ufele continued to help the Lakers climb back into it, but still was not enough to get them back in front as they trailed 38-37 at the under 12-minute media timeout. Mercyhurst finally got on top when Cannady delivered a triple out of the deep left-corner and then Gross repeated the output from the same location making it 43-38 with 8:30 remaining. Pegram trimmed the margin to 43-40, before McIntosh hit a tough jumper and McIntire buried a triple which extended the lead out to 48-40 with 7:15 to play. Cal would close the gap to five three times with the last one coming one a Pegram free throw, but a foul shot from Gross salted the contest away 61-56.
Mercyhurst shot 43.1% from the field, 35.5% beyond the arc, but only 54.5% on the foul line. Cal went 37.9% in the field, 21.7% from deep and 70% at the charity line. The Lakers were dominat off the bench outscoring the Vulcans 26-1, but were outpaced in the paint 30-16.
Gross was the leading Laker with 12 points and a team-high seven boards. McIntosh and Bradley each dropped 11, while Cannady added nine. Both McIntire and Ufele had six, with Lang and Pratapas notching three.
Pegram had 25 to lead the Vulcans, while Hall Jr. joined him in double-figures with 13. House chipped in eight. Pegram also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
Postseason Push
With the win the Lakers have locked up the second seed in the upcoming PSAC Tournament and will play their quarterfinal game at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center on Wednesday, March 4th at a time to be determined.
NCAA Regional Rankings
Mercyhurst currently is ranked seventh in the newest NCAA Atlantic Regional Poll as announced this week after having won seven straight.
On Deck - Regular Season Finale
The Lakers will close out the regular season on Saturday when they head to Slippery Rock for a 3pm tip.
