Mercy Women's Basketball Wins as Mavericks Celebrate the WBCA's PinkZone!
Mercy College celebrated the WBCA's Pink Zone on Saturday with a win, as the women's basketball team upset the Molloy College Lions 77-63 in front of 111 fans. The win is Mercy's sixth of the season, two more than a year ago.
Both teams started the game slowly on offense. Mercy 
(6-18; 4-15 East Coast Conference) managed to build a 5-0 lead over the first four minutes, on a basket by junior Jasmine Williams (Stratford, Conn./Greens Farms Academy) and three free throws from junior Simone Williams (Waldorf, Md./Lackey). Molloy (7-19, 7-12 ECC) finally found its stroke, and took an 8-6 lead at the 13:28 mark on a basket by Delmara Reece.
Mercy then went on a 17-3 run, and with 6:49 to go in the half, Mercy led 25-11. Simone Williams had nine of her game-high 25 points in that run. Teams traded baskets, and, at the half, Mercy led 36-23. In those first 20 minutes, the Mercy defense limited Molloy to just 29% shooting from the field, and forced 12 turnovers.
In the second half, Mercy continued to push the tempo, and took a 16 point lead at 42-26 on a pair of free throws from Simone Williams. Sophomore Aysha Williams (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) would score eight straight points for Mercy over the next few minutes, as the Mavericks kept the lead at 16.
Several times in the half, Molloy would make runs to cut the lead to as few as nine, and each time Mercy answered. Mercy led by as many as 19 points on a few occasions, and settled in for the 77-63 victory. Simone Williams paced the Mavericks with 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Jasmine Williams had 12 points and four assists, while senior Ashley Borofsky (Southington, Conn./Southington) had 11 points, seven rebounds, six steals, and four assists. Aysha Williams was the fourth player in double figures in scoring, with ten.
For the game, Mercy had 17 assists on 25 made field goals. Molloy had 16 assists on 24 makes.
For Molloy, Ashley Addison led the way with 15 points. Caitlin Wheeler had 13 rebounds and eight blocked shots before fouling out with less than three minutes to play.
Mercy enters the final week of the season with a road game on Wednesday, February 23, at NYIT, before hosting Dowling College on Saturday, February 26, at noon.
