SPARKILL, N.Y. (Nov. 10, 2017) – Powered by three Mavericks scoring in double figures, the Mercy College women's basketball team opened up their 2017-18 season with a 73-70 victory over Dominican College on Friday night at St. Thomas Aquinas College.
The Mavericks (1-0) win their first season opener since 2014-15, while the Chargers (0-1) open their season with a loss.
Leading Mercy was freshman Amber Brown (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick) who scored a team-high 15 points in her collegiate debut. Sophomore Caralie Wilson (Gold Coast, Australia/John Paul College) added 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting and senior Casey Sullivan (East Lyme, Conn./Saint Bernard) contributed 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting and added a team-high-tying six rebounds. Senior Monet Keane-Dawes (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) poured in nine points and brought down four rebounds.
Dominican was led by Rebecca Rabeiro who had a game-high 17 points and nine assists.
The score was tied early on at 4-4 five minutes into the first quarter before the Mavericks rattled off a 9-2 run, capped off by a Wilson trifecta, to build a 13-6 lead with 2:59 left in the opening quarter. The Chargers cut the Mercy lead to five at the 1:34 mark, but the Mavericks concluded the quarter on a 3-0 run to take an 18-10 lead after one quarter of play.
Mercy increased their lead to 12, 29-17 with 5:38 remaining in the half after a triple from junior Cynthia Perez (Middle Village, N.Y./Christ the King). The Chargers continued to battle back and cut the Mavericks lead to ten, 31-21, at the 4:17 mark. However, Mercy answered with five straight points to take their largest lead of the game, 36-21, at the 2:30 mark. Dominican had one last run in them in the half and ended the half on a 9-2 run to head into halftime down 38-30.
Mercy shot 42.4 percent in the first half and went 6-of-15 from downtown, while Dominican shot 42.1 percent and went 14-of-18 from the charity stripe.
The Mavericks started the second half on a 7-2 run to increase the lead back to 13, 45-32, with 7:48 remaining in the third quarter. The Chargers later cut the Mercy lead to seven, but Wilson answered with another three to increase the lead back to ten. Brown then followed with a three-point play to put the lead up to 13, 54-41. Dominican continued to claw their way back and got within eight, 55-47, at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw the Chargers open up the period on a 6-0 run to bring the score to 55-53 with 8:34 remaining. Dominican looked to have the momentum but Chi-la Bady (Valley Stream, N.Y./Francis Lewis) and Sullivan answered with back-to-back layups to give Mercy a 59-53 lead. The Chargers were finally able to tie the game up at 68-68 with 1:20 left on the clock. Brown followed with made layup on the next Mercy possession to give the Mavericks a 70-68 lead with 52 seconds remaining.
After a pair of missed shots by Dominican and a defensive rebound from senior Latisha Clark (Peekskill, N.Y./Peekskill), Brown stepped up again and made a layup in the paint with 19 seconds on the clock to increase Mercy's lead to 72-68. The Chargers followed with a layup at the seven second mark to get back within two. Keane-Dawes went 1-of-2 from the foul line after Dominican fouled her trying to extend the game. After a Charger timeout, Rabeiro attempted a three at the buzzer from the left elbow, but it just missed long to give Mercy the win.
Mercy shot 43.9 percent (25-of-57) from the floor, 40.9 percent (9-of-22) from beyond the arc and 50.0 percent (14-of-28) from the foul line. Dominican shot 46.3 percent (25-of-54) from the field, 21.4 percent (3-of-14) from long distance and 77.3 percent (17-of-22) from the charity stripe.
Head Coach Jim Harter and the Mavericks look to make it two wins in a row when they play Bloomfield tomorrow at 1 p.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas College.
