Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst men's basketball was unable to get the new week started the way they had hoped as they fell 75-69 to the Fighting Scots Wednesday night. The Lakers fought hard against their counterpart all night long, but Edinboro did just enough to grab a late lead and hold onto it in the end.

How it Happened

Mercyhurst was able to hit first in this one, putting the first four points on the board thanks to buckets from Aidan Reichert and Sean Fullerton. The Scots fought back with their offense finding their rhythm and going on na 11-6 run with a three from Edinboro with 15:19 to go in the first half giving the Fighting Scots their first lead of the game, 11-10. The offense on both sides slowed down a little with Edinboro able to move out their lead slightly as they were ahead 16-11 at the under 12 media timeout. The Fighting Scots continued to be on the attack and managed to move their lead into double figures with 8:02 to go in the opening half at 24-13.

Mercyhurst began to work their way, going on a 14-4 run at one point as the first half drew to a close. It was the team's work from in close that helped them be able to close the gap with their counterpart. The Lakers had five straight buckets come from inside the arc while the other two points of the run came courtesy of Reichert from the free throw line. The final buck of that stretch was a pull-up jumper from Sean Lang from the free throw line with just over two minutes till halftime to make it 28-27. Edinboro fought back in the final couple of minutes of play, but Mercyhurst retained their lead heading into the break with a one point advantage, 33-32.

It was an even opening between the two teams in the second half. Sean Fullerton played a large part in the first few minutes of the canto as he scored six of the the Laker's first eight points. His efforts, though, were not enough to keep Edinboro down as they were tied with Mercyhurst, 39-39, going into the under 16 timeout. It continued to be a back-and-forth affair over the next several minutes with neither team able to hold a lead larger than three with the score standing at 50-48 at the 11:23 mark. Defense became the name of the game over the course of the next four minutes with only 12 points scored between the two teams. They ended up trading three pointers with Mercyhurst's coming last thanks to Jeff Planutis to make it a 57-55 game in favor of Mercyhurst with 7:27 left in the game.

After his made shot from deep, Planutis ended up getting a pair of makes the hard way with back-to-back and-ones to give Mercyhurst a small cushion, 63-60, with just under six minutes to go. His strong run, unfortunately did not spark a run for Mercyhurst with the Fighting Scots able to hang around. Edinboro ended up taking a lead off of a made three at the 4:10 mark, 64-63, before adding onto their advantage as the score stood at 71-65 with just over a minute to go. Mercyhurst did all they could to protect home court, but their efforts in the final 60 seconds were not enough in the 75-69 loss.

Highlights

Jeff Planutis once again led the team in scoring with 21 points while shooting 7-17 from the field to go along with his three assists and four steals. It was his fifth game of 20 or more points this season and his third in his last four games with his second-half effort proving to be a big reason for that as he had 15 points over the course of the final 20 minutes. He was joined in double-digits by Luke Triggs (15) Sean Fullerton (14), and Aidan Reichert (10) with Reichert adding nine rebounds to his ledger as well for the second-most so far this season, coming in just one behind his 10 against D'Youville in the middle of November.

Next Game

Mercyhurst goes on the road to close out their week as they go to Greensburg, Pa. to take on Seton Hill on Saturday, January 20th, in a 3:00 p.m. start before coming back closer to their friendly confines as they play Gannon on the 24th in game hosted by the Golden Knights inside the Hagerty Family Events Center at 7:30 p.m.