DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Nov. 16, 2021) – The Mercy College men's basketball team opens up their 2021-22 season on Wednesday, November 17th when they host Post at 7 p.m. The Mavericks look to qualify for the ECC Tournament for the second straight year with nine returners from the 2020-21 squad and four newcomers.
"We are looking forward to blending our newcomers with our returners. Our guys have a chip on their shoulder from last year ending early due to COVID. We are looking forward to competing every time we step out on the court," stated Head Coach Michael Maczko.
The Mavericks are looking to build off a COVID-19 shortened season in which they earned their largest victory over Molloy since 2005 and made their first appearance in the ECC Tournament since 2016. Mercy was picked seventh in the ECC Coaches' Poll with the top six teams qualifying for the year-end ECC Tournament.
Maczko will look to junior James Taylor Jr. to lead the way after he was named to the ECC Honor Roll once in 2021. He started all seven games and ranked second on the team in points (14.4), rebounds (4.9) and assists per game (2.3). He shot a team-best 42.5 percent from downtown and ranked fifth in the ECC in three-point percentage.
Also returning is junior Garrett Kirkland who was third on the team in scoring in 2021 with 8.4 points per game and was second with 1.8 made threes per game. Senior Amadou Camara also comes back after posting 8.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game in two games a year ago. Junior Elijah Mitchell averaged 6.6 points per game a year ago and sophomore Jay Turner also returns after recording 6.3 points and a team-high-tying 2.4 assists per game a year ago.
Junior Brandon Wilson started five of the seven games a year ago and averaged 5.9 points per game with 2.9 rebounds per game. Senior Korey Lee, junior Jonathan Lapierre and sophomore Justinas Norkus also return for Maczko and will look to compete for minutes.
Leading the newcomers is sophomore Jayden Dewaal who joins the team from Trinidad State Junior College. Dewaal averaged eight points and seven rebounds while shooting 64% from the field at Trinidad State Junior College. St. Francis College (Brooklyn) sophomore transfer Alex May also joins the team. He appeared in five games last year for them and averaged 13.0 points per game in high school and was named All-League. Freshman Jaden Mclellan joins the Mavericks from New York Military Academy and Maczko also welcomes local product Ryan Ritch who went to Dobbs Ferry High School and was named All-League and All-Section.
The Mavericks will look to a combination of their strong returning core and a solid recruiting class to lead them back to the ECC Tournament.
