McClease Posts 16 Points as Men's Basketball Takes on Queens
Box Score DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Feb. 7, 2015) – Junior Gerald McClease (New Haven, Conn./Sullivan CC) headlined three scoring in double figures with 16 points as the Mercy College men's basketball team could not overcome a 57 percent shooting afternoon by Queens College, falling 87-67 on Saturday at Mercy Gymnasium.
The Mavericks (7-13, 2-12 ECC) drop their third straight, while the Knights (5-16, 5-9 ECC) have won two of their last three following a five-game losing streak.
McClease put together a strong 6-of-9 shooting afternoon while securing a game-high six rebounds. Fellow junior Jason Quijada (Monsey, N.Y./Rockland CC) dropped in 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting and came up with three thefts. Sophomore Najee Senior (Bronx, N.Y./Western Okla. State College) rounded out the trio reaching double figures with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting, including two made trifectas.
Kyheim Chaplin paced the guests with a game-high 24 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor and 9-of-10 shooting from the line.
Mercy jumped out of the gates early taking their largest lead of the game, 12-3, following a Quijada layup at the 16:28 mark. However, Queens came right back on a 34-14 run that gave them their largest lead of the opening half, 37-26, with 59 seconds left before intermission.
Junior Joshua Thompson (Chester, Pa./Globe Institute) connected on a layup with 34 seconds left before halftime to cut the deficit to single digits, 37-28, heading into the break.
The Knights came out of the break with a trifecta to go up 12, 40-28, with 18:47 remaining. The Mavericks would have one last run in them as they followed with a 16-4 run over the next seven minutes to tie the score up at 44-44 with 11:32 left in regulation.
The momentum seemed to be in Mercy's favor, but Queens responded immediately following McClease's layup that tied the game with eight unanswered to build the lead back up to eight, 52-44, at the 10:33 mark.
Thompson followed with another layup to cut the deficit to six, 52-46, but that would be the closest the Mavericks would get as the Knights outscored Mercy 35-21 to end the game and headed home victorious.
Both teams shot the ball well on the afternoon with Queens hitting 57.4 percent (27-of-47) of their attempts while Mercy was at a 49.0 percent (25-of-51) clip. The Mavericks were able to hold a 27-24 edge on the glass and 40-26 edge in the paint.
Head Coach Dr. Jody King and the Mavericks look to bounce back as they head on the road for a matchup against LIU Post on Wednesday, February 11th at 7:30 p.m.
