ERIE, Pa. - Junior guard
Steve Cannady had a season-high 19 points and the Lakers defense forced 22 second-half turnovers as seventh-ranked Mercyhurst men's basketball team overcome a slow start to take down the visiting D'Youville College Saints by a score of 90-56 final on Friday evening at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. With the Lakers have now won 12-straight contests inside the Athletic Center and are also just three wins away from matching a program-best 11-0 start set back in 2008-09.
Mercyhurst got out to the fast 4-0 edge over the opening 41-seconds as
Cameron Gross and
MiyKah McIntosh both converted layups. The Lakers continued to extend their advantage with a 6-4 push with
Daniel Ogele knocking home two at the line along with
Michael Bradley and McIntosh each picking up buckets to make it 10-4 with 17:49 to play. Garrian Wade answered back in a big way sticking a couple of treys during a 7-0 spurt to grab a slim 11-10 edge.
Jeff Planutis,
Steve Cannady and
Joel Ufele pushed the margin back to six at 17-11 at the six-minute mark. D'Youville used a 7-3 charge to cut the deficit down to just two, 20-18 with 11:16 left after Noah Denz made two at the stripe. A Brian Sharp triple off a Jared Sullivan dish brought the Saints to within 25-24 with 11:03 gone. Ogele accounted for the next three points over a four-minute span. However, a 9-4 push by the visitors led by Wade and Sharp resulted in the Saints grabbing the lead 34-32 with just 40-ticks to go. McIntosh was determined to give the home side the advantage heading to the break, and he did just that with a driving layup coupled with a three at the horn for the 37-34 lead.
The Lakers started the second period strong as a
Zach McIntire jam ended a 7-2 run over a 3:02 span to push the margin to 44-36. Wade knocked down two at the charity line to stall the momentum for a brief moment at 44-38, however it was then the home side that showed their strength using a 14-1 stampede aided by two triples from McIntosh to open up a sizeable 58-39 advantage with 13:30 remaining. After, a McIntire steal and coast-to-coast finish made it 60-39, it became the Cannady show as he netted 11 straight Lakers points to up the gap to 30, 74-44 with under eight minutes to go. The rest of the game was pretty even as the home side outpaced the guests 16-12 the rest of the way with Hurst buckets coming from
Owen Chambers,
Trey Hoepner,
Jeff Planutis, McIntire and Ogele for the 90-56 final. The Lakers defense dominated the second half as they forced 22 turnovers from the Saints.
Team Stat Pack
Field Goal % - Hurst, 45.2% (33-73) / DYC, 46.2% (18-39)
Three Point % - Hurst, 33.3% (11-33) / DYC, 69.2%% (9-13)
Foul Shooting % - Hurst, 72.2% (13-18) / DYC, 73.3% (11-15)
Rebounds - Hurst, 30 / DYC, 35
Turnovers - Hurst, 9 / DYC, 36
Points off Paint - Hurst, 40 / DYC, 12
Bench Points - Hurst, 37 / DYC, 14
Time with lead - Hurst, 36:16 / DYC, 2:30
Mercyhurst Individual Stats
Points - Cannady (19), McIntosh (15), Bradley (12), Ogele (11)
Rebounds - Ogele (9), Lang, McIntire, McIntosh and Ufele (3)
Assists - Bradley (7), Cannady and McIntire (4)
D'Youville Individual Stats
Points - Wade (18), Beyer (13)
Rebounds - Denz (8)
On Deck
The Lakers and Saints do it all again tomorrow afternoon inside the Mercyhurst Athletic Center at 2pm.
