Chicago, Ill.- Mercyhurst saw their four-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday night when fell 85-78 to Chicago State. The Lakers saw an 14-point first half lead evaporate as they dropped just their second game in their past six matchups.
 
How it Happened:
Chicago State came out looking to build off their third win of the season so far, but a quick trio of three pointers from the Lakers gave them a 9-5 lead just four minutes into action. The second of which came from Senior Bernie Blunt III kicked off a 13-2 run for Mercyhurst. That run came to an end after the Cougars leading scorer, Jalen Forrest sank three free throws to get the game back to within two scores. The Lakers seemed to be unstoppable over the next three possessions, however. Freshman Jake Lemelman upped the lead to 11 points after he turned an Aidan Reichert steal into another three point basket. The Lakers went on another run soon after that included scores from four different players. That 10-2 run helped to extend the lead to 14 points. But a Chicago State 10-2 brought the score right back to 35-29. At the half, Mercyhurst kept the two possession lead.
 
Chicago State came out swinging in the second half. To start the second, they managed to string together three straight baskets to grab their first lead since the opening stages of the game. Five minutes in, they were still hanging onto their newly found lead. And mishaps on the offensive end for Mercyhurst certainly helped. Mercyhurst was outscored 19-6 to start the second 20 minutes of action. Forrest continued to be productive for Chicago State and after back-to-back buckets he had the Cougars up 57-48. Noble Crawford helped him out and after a three point jumper, they extended the lead to 11 points. The gap looked as if it was going to continue to widen, but Reichert helped get the lead back down to six with three minutes to go. The Lakers were perfect down the stretch on free throws, but so were the Cougars, and a technical foul gave them a four point swing to make the score 81-72 with a minute to go. The late free throws helped Chicago State walk away with a 85-78 win.
 
Highlights:
Reichert and Planutis continued to shine in the loss. Reichert scored 18 points and Planutis scored 15 as Mercyhurst lost their first game January 20^th. Mykolas Ivanauskas also dropped 12 points as he went a perfect five for five from the field.
 
Next Game:
The Lakers will return to action on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. when they welcome Le Moyne to town. The action can all be caught on the NEC Front Row.
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