ERIE, Pa. - After having a 23-day layoff the Mercyhurst Women's Basketball team showed no loss of confidence, as senior forward
Meghan Komendarek posted a career-day with 21 points and 13 rebounds to help the Lakers cruise by the visiting Miles College Golden Bears by a final of 81-52 on Friday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.
Komendarek and her classmate
Emily Shopene started the game strong staking the Lakers to a 3-0 lead in the opening 35-seconds. There would be no scoring for the next two minutes, before
Jayde Boyd,
Nicolette Arnold and
Paige Woodford led an 8-4 push to make it 11-4 at the media timeout. Mya Millner picked up a layup with 4:25 remaining cutting the score to 11-6. However, the rest of the period was all Mercyhurst as
Grace Centrulla, Boyd, Arnold and Shopene closed out on an 8-0 run to lead 19-6 through one.
The teams exchanged foul shots to begin the second which kept the hosts in front 20-8. After an "old-fashioned" three-point play by Shopene made it 23-8. Miles responded with Raiana Johnson, Amya Bryant and Jasmine Thompson each knocking down a pair at the charity line to close within 25-14 with 5:38 remaining. The margin remained at 11 after two free throws each by Nadia Bradley and
Brittini Martin.
Julia Buchman converted back-to-back layup opportunities to extend the gap to 31-16 at the 6:03 mark. Mercyhurst could not strech the lead anymore going to the half as the Lakers and Golden Bears shared the remaining 16 points leaving the score 39-24 at half.
An Arnold free throw and pull-up from Boyd pushed the lead to 42-24 just over a minute into the third. Markisha Body and Johnson got the visitors the closest they had been in a while at 42-28, prior to Boyd ending their run with a triple. From that moment on the quarter would belong to Komendarek as she single-handedly outscored Miles 10-7 over a 5:29 span. before Arnold split a pair at the stripe to lead 56-35 after three.
After doing most of their damage inside in the third through Komendarek. The Lakers decided they were going to do a good amount of damage from deep in the fourth as Buchman, Boyd, and Komendarek twice all hit outside the arc to make it 68-39 with 6:47 to go. Buchman would push the advantage over 30 with a layup, before Miles got buckets by Keandria Childress and Thompson cutting it to 70-43.
Emma McDermott netted six and
Jillian Spano picked up two at the line for their first points of the season to help close the game at 81-52.
Team Stat Pack
Field Goal % - Hurst, 50% (29-58) / Salem, 24.1% (19-79)
Three Point % - Hurst, 35% (7-20) / Miles, 13.3% (2-15)
Foul Shooting % - Hurst, 69.6% (16-23) / Miles, 75% (12-16)
Rebounds - Hurst, 50 / Miles, 44
Points in Paint - Hurst, 42 / Miles, 32
Turnovers - Hurst, 21 / Miles, 12
Blocks - Hurst, 9 / Miles, 5
Mercyhurst Individual Stats
Points - Komendarek (21), Boyd (16), Buchman (11), Shopene (8), Arnold (7), McDermott (6)
Rebounds - Komendarek (13), Boyd (8), Centrulla (6)
Assists - Shopene (9), Arnold (5), Woodford (4)
Blocks - Komendarek (4), Boyd and Centrulla (2), Shopene (1)
Miles Individual Stats
Points - Johnson (10), Millner (8)
Rebounds - Johnson (8), Thompson (6)
On Deck
The Lakers and Golden Bears will battle again tomorrow at 12pm at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.
