SPARKILL, N.Y. (Nov. 10, 2018) – Powered by a double-double from sophomore Amber Brown (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick), the Mercy College women's basketball team earned an 82-71 victory over Nyack College on Saturday afternoon at Aquinas Hall Gymnasium to give Head Coach Scott Lagas his first collegiate win.

The Mavericks (1-1) pick up their first win of the season, while the Warriors (0-2) remain winless on the year.

Brown had a game-high-tying 22 points on 5-of-11 shooting and 10-of-12 shooting from the foul line with a game-high 12 rebounds. Junior Destinee Hall (Spring Valley, N.Y./Keystone College) had 15 points and six rebounds and senior Cynthia Perez (Middle Village, N.Y./Christ the King) poured in 12 points. Freshman Taysha Bender (Glen Burnie, Md./Archbishop Spalding) dropped in 11 points and junior Abigail Collier (Watertown, Conn./Watertown) recorded ten points and five rebounds.

Nyack was led by Elle Nittinger who had a game-high-tying 22 points.

The Warriors jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the opening quarter, but the Mavericks stormed back and ended the quarter on a 12-2 run to bring the score to 16-14 in favor of Nyack after the opening stanza.

Brown opened the second quarter with a trifecta to give Mercy a 17-16 lead and the Mavericks followed with 12 more points in a row to start the quarter on a 15-0 run, capped off by a Hall jumper, that gave Mercy a 29-16 lead with 4:39 remaining in the half. Nyack would cut the deficit to seven, 30-23, with 1:56 on the clock, but the Mavericks headed into halftime with a 35-27 lead.

Freshman Alexis Lake (Lakeview, N.Y./Malverne) opened the second half with the first points to put Mercy up 10, 37-27. Nyack followed with an 8-2 run to trim the Mavericks lead to four, 39-35, with 6:17 left in the quarter. The Warriors continued to battle and would make it a three-point contest, 46-43, with two minutes left in the frame. Nyack kept the game close at the end of the third quarter and headed into the fourth quarter down, 52-48.

Mercy increased the lead back to eight, 56-48, to start the fourth quarter after back-to-back baskets from Brown and Hall. Nyack came right back with an 8-2 run to cut the deficit to two, 58-56, with 7:25 remaining. Mercy put the lead back to six, 62-56, after a jumper from Collier with 6:15 showing on the clock. The Warriors made it 62-59 at the 5:18 mark on a free throw by Sarah Wilson. However, the Mavericks increased the lead right back to five, 64-59, on a pair of free throws by Brown.

Mercy held a 68-63 lead with 2:50 remaining and would increase the lead to ten, 77-67, after a Bender jumper with 57 seconds left. The Mavericks later took a game-high 13-point lead, 81-68, after a Bender free throw with 23 seconds on the clock and held on for the win.

Mercy shot 55.8 percent (24-of-43) from the floor, 30.0 percent (3-of-10) from downtown and 70.5 percent (31-of-44) from the foul line. Nyack shot 33.3 percent (23-of-69) from the field, 28.6 percent (8-of-28) from beyond the arc and 65.4 percent (17-of-26) from the charity stripe. Nyack held a 23-17 edge in points off turnovers and a 17-6 edge in second chance points, but Mercy held a 29-19 advantage in bench points.

Head Coach Scott Lagas and the Mavericks resume action on Wednesday, November 14th when they play at Concordia at 5 p.m.