VALHALLA, N.Y. (Dec. 2, 2017) – Powered by a game high 33 points from junior Dequawne Richards (Bronx, N.Y./Hostos CC), the Mercy College men's basketball team earned a 97-71 victory over Fisher College on Saturday afternoon at Westchester Community College.
The Mavericks (4-2) have won three straight games and are off to their best six-game start since the 1997-98 season when they started 5-1. The Falcons (5-7) have now dropped five of their last seven games.
Richards shot an efficient 10-of-18 from the floor and had five rebounds and three assists. Senior Kelvin Howard (Temple Hills, Md./Baltimore City CC) also scored in double figures with 14 points and five rebounds on 3-of-5 shooting from downtown. Junior Sal Barbetto (New City, N.Y./Rockland CC) capped off the game with 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds and redshirt freshman Bryan Griffin (Pomona, N.Y./Saint Joseph Regional) and junior Amir Atkins (Alexandria, Va./Hagerstown CC) added eight points.
Fisher was led by Mikol Blake-Green who had a team high 18 points and six rebounds. Jamontay Thompson added 16 points and four rebounds.
Mercy looked to continue their winning ways and got off to a good start as junior Daquon Ervin (Brooklyn, N.Y./UMBC) opened the contest with a three on the first possession. The Mavericks later found themselves down 4-3 at the 18:36 mark, but would quickly regain their focus and go on a 12-3 run to build a 15-7 advantage they would not relinquish.
Fisher cut the deficit to six, 18-12, with 13:59 left in the first half, but Mercy followed with an 11-3 run over the next four minutes to increase the lead to 14, 29-15, after a Marko Kozul (Astoria, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) jumper. The Falcons battled their way back and trimmed the Mercy lead to ten, 32-22, at the 6:23 mark. However, the Mavericks followed with an 11-0 run to put the lead at 21, 43-22, with just over four minutes left in the frame. Mercy would hold a double-digit lead for the remainder of the half and headed into halftime up 48-30.
The second half saw the Mavericks open up the period on a 13-5 run to build a 26-point lead, 61-35, with 16:15 remaining. Mercy later increased the lead to a game high 35 points, 88-53, with 6:59 left to play and would hold large lead the rest of the way in securing the win.
Mercy shot 46.4 percent (32-of-69) from the floor, 35.5 percent (11-of-31) from downtown and 81.5 percent (22-of-27) from the foul line. Fisher shot 36.0 percent (27-of-75) from the field, 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from beyond the arc and 75.0 percent (9-of-12) from the charity stripe.
Head Coach Michael Maczko and the Mavericks look to make it four wins in a row when they play at NYIT in their ECC opener on Wednesday, December 6th at 7:30 p.m.
