Pope and Morrish Star for Men's Basketball at ECC Rival Dowling
Box Score
OAKDALE, N.Y. (Feb. 23, 2013) – Senior forward Joseph Pope (Akron, Ohio) recorded his second career 30-point performance and junior guard Chaz Morrish (Douglaston, N.Y.) set a career high in points for a third consecutive game as the Mercy College men's basketball team squared off at East Coast Conference rival Dowling College on Saturday afternoon.
Dowling hit a three-pointer to start things off but Pope responded with one of his own to tie the score. Mercy took a four-point lead shortly after and extended the margin to as much as nine before the Golden Lions began to chip away at it.
Down seven with 8:14 remaining in the first half, Dowling scored 10 unanswered points over the next two and a half minutes to go up by three. Senior guard Jerrell Lawrence (Baldwin, N.Y.) hit a trey to tie things back up and Pope followed with another to regain the lead, which the Mavericks stretched to four with 3:18 to go.
A quick jumper and trio of three-pointers – two consecutive from sophomore guard Darien Davis (Middle Island, N.Y.) – later, the Golden Lions had their biggest lead of the day, at seven points, and a buzzer-beating runner by graduate guard Tracey Lewis (Bronx, N.Y.) was all the momentum the Mavericks could carry into halftime, down five.
Mercy managed to pull back within one point on a Pope jumper in the paint after four minutes in the second half, but Dowling recovered to slowly extend the lead back out to as much as 10 before long.
Still up seven with 9:21 to play, the Golden Lions then scored seven unanswered points to go up by a game-high 14, which the Mavericks cut back to single digits twice, the last time coming with 4:34 left in the game. Dowling responded with another nine straight points to go up by 18 and led by 20 at the 1:15 mark before Mercy scored the final nine points of the contest, cutting the score line to a respectable 94-83 loss.
Pope led the Mavericks with 31 points on 13-21 from the field, eight rebounds and three steals. Morrish, who struggled to shoot just 28.4 percent over the first 22 games of the season, set a new career high for the third consecutive game, with 17 points, including going 4-7 from beyond the arc. He has shot the lights out since finally finding his touch over the last three games, hitting 51.9 percent from the field and 64.7 percent from beyond the arc. Freshman guard Nate Stitchell (Coventry, R.I.) dished out four assists, while junior center Olajide Keshinro (Brooklyn, N.Y.) impressed with eight points on 3-3 shooting in just 12 minutes.
Junior guard Corwin Austin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led five Golden Lions to score in double figures with 19 points, added 13 rebounds for the double-double and dished out a team-high six assists. Davis and senior wing Josh Malone (Deer Park, N.Y.) each netted 17 points with three made treys apiece and four steals for Davis.
Head Coach Adam Parmenter and the Mavericks will end their season at ECC foe the University of the District of Columbia (5-20, 4-13) which they defeated earlier this season, 76-71, on Saturday, March 2 at 1:00 p.m.
