Box Score Sacramento, Ca.- While the snow continues to fall back home in Erie, the Mercyhurst Men's basketball team got back on the court in Northern California. The Lakers grabbed their fifth win of the season as they downed Sacramento State 66-60 in the third game of their four-game west coast road trip.  
 
How it Happened:
Senior Bernie Blunt III had a career game on Saturday, and it started with his first basket just 20 seconds in. Blunt scored the Lakers first 11 points of the game to help Mercyhurst grab an early 11-3 lead. Through the first ten minutes, only one other Laker made a field goal. Freshman Jake Lemelman made converted a three-pointer as Mercyhurst was hot from beyond the arc. After some recent struggles from three, the Lakers knocked down their first four attempts in the game. Sacramento State started to chip away at the deficit slowly in the second part of the first half, but just when it looked like they could knot things up, Blunt knocked down another three-pointer and Senior Aidan Reichert also had two quick baskets to give Mercyhurst a 22-11 lead. The Hornets continued to fight back though. A 9-0 run over two minutes had them back within two, but the Lakers answered with an 11-2 run of their own to close the half.
 
Jacob Holt and Jeff Planutis traded three-pointers to open the second 20 minutes of action. Just as Mercyhurst felt they were starting to pull away, the Hornets wouldn't stay down. Julian Vaughns knocked down a three-point field goal with just eight minutes left that sparked the Sacramento State offense. From that point, they outscored Mercyhurst 18-10 up until there was two minutes left. But just as they felt they had life, Planutis hit a clutch three to seal the Lakers fifth win of the season.
 
Highlights:
Blunt had the best night of his Laker career as he seemed automatic from the floor. He scored 25 points on 12 shots and shot 62.5% from behind the arc. Planutis continues to show why he's one of the best players in Mercyhurst history. He came alive in the second half, and he accounted for 20 points and three assists. Mercyhurst shot 46.8% from the field after they've had some rough performances in the past two games. The Lakers are now back over .500 as they enter the final game of the west coast road trip.
 
Next Game:
Mercyhurst concludes their road trip on Sunday when they'll face San Francisco, who is undefeated at home thus far. The action kicks off at 7:00 p.m. and can be caught on ESPN+.