Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst men's basketball wrapped up their weekend on the wrong side of the ledger as they fell to the Vulcans Saturday afternoon. Mercyhurst was in their friendly confines for their contest with Cal but it did not seem to faze their counterpart one bit as a fast start for the Vulcans helped them take control in the early going in the 77-60 final.
How it Happened
Cal came out of the aggressors and managed to stake themselves to a double-figure lead in the early going. They looked to go inside for easy shots and managed to get a few of them with four of their first six makes being layups, helping the Vulcans establish the interior. While their offense seemed to be firing on all cylinders, it was their work on defense that lead to the advantage as they held the Lakers without a points through the first nine minutes of the game.
Mercyhurst finally got on the board at the 10:26 point of the first period thanks to a made three-point shot from sophomore Dasan Doucet thanks to the feed from Jeff Planutis. The graduate guard then got in on the scoring action from long range, hitting back-to-back triples before Christian Gamble got in on the action as the Lakers made a fourth-straight three to make it an 18-12 scoring with 7:34 remaining until halftime.
Mercyhurst's strong run from deep helped show Cal that their counterparts would not go away quietly. While the Lakers were not able to make it all the way back before the halftime break, they did pull within eight going into the locker room. Sean Fullerton proved to be a big reason for Mercyhurst sticking around as he had eight points over the course of the final six minutes of the opening half. He ended up making two triples over that span with the second being the final make of the stanza for either team, making it a 30-22 score at the break.
Cal came out from the locker room as the better team and ended up going on an 18-5 run over the course of the first five minutes of the second half. It was once again their work from in close that helped the Vulcans go on a strong run as all seven of their made field goals over that span were layups. The solid stretch of play for Cal helped them silent the crowd in enemy territory and take control of the contest, up 48-27. The Lakers had a strong run on their own as they went on a 12-4 to help close the game some, but the Vulcans never gave up their lead and withstood Mercyhurst's attack. Despite the Lakers doing all they could to try and claw their way back into this one, they could never get over the hump and ultimately fell 77-60.
Highlights
Aidan Reichert led the way for the Lakers in scoring with 15 points in the game, shooting 7-13 from the field. It marks the fifth straight game the junior forward has scored 10 or more points in a game, leading the team in scoring on three occasions over that span. He was followed by Jeff Planutis who had 14 points while Sean Fullerton rounded out the players with double figures with 13. Fullerton did the majority of his work in the opening half, scoring 11 points over the course of the first 20 minutes with a trio of three-point makes in that time.
Next Game
Mercyhurst plays three games in the new week with their first coming on Monday, January 29th, at 7:30 for their final home game of the month. After that, they go on the road to see Slippery Rock on Wednesday the 31st before beginning the month of February with Pitt-Johnstown on the road on Saturday, February 3rd, at 3:00 p.m.
