Sullivan Nails Jumper as Time Expires to lift Women's Basketball to an 82-81 Overtime Victory Against Georgian Court.
Box Score NYACK, N.Y. (Nov. 15, 2014)- Freshman Casey Sullivan's (East Lyme, Conn. / Saint Bernard) jumper as time expired lifted the Mercy College women's basketball team to a 82-81 victory over the Lions of Georgian Court victory in the Conference Challenge Tournament on the campus of Nyack College this afternoon.
The Mavericks improve to 2-0 overall, while the Lions fall to 0-2 overall.
Freshman Latisha Clark (Peekskill, N.Y. / Peekskill) went 2-for-2 in the opening minute of the game to give Mercy the early 4-0 advantage. Junior Erin Copeland (Kansas City, Kan. / Univ. of Illinois-Springfield) continued her performance from yesterday, as she connected on her first two shots to take a 10-7 lead with 15:21 left in the half.
The Lions defense gave the offense a jolt, as they used a 9-2 run over the next five and half minutes to jump out to a 18-12 lead with 09:50 left. Junior Tatiana Parish (Los Angeles, Calif. / Mt. San Antonio CC) cut the Lions lead to just four at 18-14, but the Lions would use a 22-10 run in the final 09:30 to hold a 36-24 lead at the break.
In the second half, Parish knocked down two three-pointers in the first three minutes, but couldn't cut into the Lions 12 point advantage.
Head Coach Rashidi Aikens called a 30 seconds timeout to try to settle his ladies down. After the timeout, Tahira Matthew made layups on back-to-back trip for the Lions to hold a 55-43 lead with 09:28 left.
After the Lions missed a three point attempt, senior Riana Ward (Bronx, N.Y. / Erie CC) grabbed the defensive rebound and threw an outlet pass to Copeland. Copeland found Sullivan in the corner for the three and the run was on. Georgian Court clanged to a 55-46 lead with 08:40 left. Ward singled handedly cut the lead from nine to three on back-to-back three point plays. Mercy only trailed by three at 55-52 with 07:07 left to play.
The Lions stretched the lead back to eight on free throws by Matthews and Jess Placher. Once again the Mavericks crawled their way back into the game, as Copeland assisted on two Sullivan three's to tie the game up at 60-60 with just over three minutes to play.
Matthew sank free throws down the stretch for Georgian Court and forced Mercy to respond. Senior Brandone Roberts (Jessup, Md. / Nyack College) made two free throws out of a Lions full timeout, which tied the game up again at 65 with 43 seconds left.
After the Lions grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with 15 seconds left, Roberts took a jumper on the other end with time expiring. Copeland grabbed the offensive rebound and made the layup as the clock hit all zeros to send the game into overtime tied at 67.
In the extra session, Mercy jumped out to a 74-69 lead in the opening minute. Georgian Court used their strong free throw shooting to keep themselves in striking distance.
Copeland knocked down a pair of free throws to hold a 78-72 lead with 02:31 to play. The Lions would capitalize on a missed layup and a turnover by Copeland to regain the lead at 81-80 with 29 seconds to play.
Coach Aikens called a full timeout to setup the final play. Mercy inbounds the ball to Copeland and she attacks the basket with six seconds left and misses the lay-up but Sullivan's grabs the offensive rebound and nails a jumper with time expiring to remain undefeated in 2014-15.
For Mercy, Sullivan finished with 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting and four rebounds, while both Parish and Copeland scored a team-high 18 points. Copeland added 11 assists to collect her first double-double as a Maverick. Roberts dropped in a double-double of her own with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Matthew had a game-high 45 points and 18 rebounds off the bench for Lions.
Coach Aikens and the Mavericks return to action on Monday Nov. 17, as they host the Wolves of Cheyney University in the regular season home opener at 5:30 p.m.
