Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst men's basketball made the short trip to see the Golden Knights Wednesday night with Gannon getting the better of the matchup. The two teams played each other even through the first 20 minutes of play with only one point separating them at halftime, but Gannon managed to hold the advantage in the second. The Lakers fought hard to keep up with their counterpart, but ultimately fell 79-68 in the end.
How it Happened
The Lakers started out as the aggressors with them jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the first couple of minutes. Aidan Reichert had the hot hand for Mercyhurst in that stretch with him scoring four of the team's six points, hitting a pair of layups. Afterwards, the Laker's offense went through a cold stretch as they tried to handle Gannon's full court pressure with the Golden Knights holding Mercyhurst scoreless for over three minutes. In that time Gannon managed to find their rhythm with the team scoring nine unanswered to make it 9-6 at the 14:44 mark of the opening frame.
After Mercyhurst managed to tie things up 11-11 with just under 12 minutes to go, the Golden Knights once again went on a run to build up a lead. The team looked to go inside to help them build the advantage as a pair of made layups and two free throws were the six unanswered points for the Golden Knights that made it 17-11 at the 10:32 mark. The Lakers struggled to score from there as Gannon's pressure proved to be tough to break. That strong defensive pressure resulted in a double-digit lead for the Golden Knights, 24-13.
It was freshman Alexander Parks who helped Mercyhurst get back into it as the guard ended up going a nine-point run of his own. He ended up nailing a three with 6:39 to go until halftime and followed that with two more with the final triple of that run tying the game up, 24-24, for the first time since it was an 11-11 game six minutes prior. The injection of life from their longe-range shooting helped the Lakers with Gannon even through the final few minutes of the opening half. Every time one team scored, the other came right back with a rebuttal with the final bucket coming courtesy of Jeff Planutis who nailed his first shot of the game to make it 32-31 going into the halftime break with Gannon ahead.
The two teams continued to trade buckets when play resumed with one tie and four lead changes in the first three minutes of the second half. Mercyhurst's offense found a way to break Gannon's full court press with them hitting all first of their first six shots with many of them coming in transition. The final bucket of that run was a made three from Sean Fullerton with 15:35 to go in the second stanza to make it a 46-44 game in favor of the Lakers. Gannon did not stay down for long, though, as they were able to build their lead back up thanks to a solid effort from the free throw line as they were able to make it a 54-48 game with just under 13 minutes to go in the game before extending their lead to 59-50 with 9:02 left on the clock.
Gannon was able to once again their lead back up to double-digits with over seven minutes to go as the score stood 64-52. From there, the Golden Knights controlled the game and were able to keep their counterpart arm's length away as their advantage never got below seven the rest of the way. The Laker's offense did well for themselves and managed to put the ball in the bucket, but Gannon had an answer for everything thrown their way, shooting over 60% from the field over the course of the final 20 minutes. Mercyhurst never gave in a fought to close the gap, but could never quiet get over the hump in the 79-68 final.
Highlights
Jeff Planutis led the way for the Lakers in points with 20, shooing 6-11 from the floor and going 2-4 from deep. His effort in the second half picked up as he went 5-6 overall and a 2-2 from beyond the arc, adding four rebounds and five assists to his line. He was followed by Aidan Reichert who had 16 on a 7-9 shooting effort while having three rebounds and one steal. It is the fourth game in a row that Reichert has scored in double figures, averaging 16 points per game over that span while shooting 27-45 over that time. Alexander Parks finished with nine points with all of them coming off of three-point makes, hitting three in total. It's just the third time this year he has hit multiple triples in a game with his trio in this one being the most in a single game.
Next Game
Mercyhurst goes back home for their next game as they see Cal (Pa.) on Saturday, January 27th, in a 3:00 p.m. tip-off. They then stay at home for their next game as they host Clarion on the 29th at 7:30 p.m. before going on the road to close out the month of January on the 31st against Slippery Rock.
