DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Dec. 18, 2022) – Powered by a combined 37 points from senior Katie Wall (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) and graduate student Taysha Bender (Glen Burnie, Md./Archbishop Spalding), the Mercy College women's basketball team earned a 68-58 win over Goldey-Beacom College on Sunday afternoon at the Neil Judge Student Athlete Center.
The Mavericks (6-6) improve to .500 on the year and defeat the Lightning (4-8) for the second straight year.
Wall had a game-high 21 points on 12-of-13 shooting from the foul line and added eight rebounds and five steals. Bender added 16 points, eight rebounds and four steals and senior Kellie Nudd (Colchester, Conn./Bacon Academy) netted eight points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Jaclyn Stanavich (Amsterdam, N.Y./Amsterdam) recorded seven points and graduate student Sara Hopkins (Mountain Top, Pa./Concordia College) contributed six points.
Goldey-Beacom was led by Mone Izumi who had a team-high 16 points.
The Lightning jumped out to a 7-4 lead with 6:21 left in the first quarter. The Mavericks closed the quarter on an 11-0 run, finished off by a Wall three-point play, to give Mercy a 15-7 lead after the first quarter.
Mercy opened the second quarter with four straight points to take a 19-7 lead after a pair of Brianne Santos (Elmont, N.Y./Nazareth Regional) free throws. A Hopkins three at the 6:19 mark gave the Mavericks their largest lead of the game, 26-11, with 6:19 left in the half. Mercy later held a 28-13 lead after a pair of Bender free throws at the 4:19 mark. Goldey-Beacom rallied with an 11-0 run to cut the Mavericks lead to four, 28-24. However, a late Bender layup gave Mercy a 30-24 lead at halftime.
Goldey-Beacom scored the first four points of the third quarter to cut Mercy's lead to two, 30-28. Four consecutive points from Wall gave the Mavericks a 34-28 lead with 7:28 left in the quarter. The Lightning responded with a 12-4 run to take a 40-38 lead with 2:07 remaining in the quarter. Mercy ended the quarter on an 8-1 run to take a 46-41 lead after three quarters.
The Lightning started the fourth quarter on a 9-3 run to take a 50-49 lead with 5:12 remaining. Two free throws from senior Asha Talib (Allentown, Pa./University of Bridgeport), a free throw from junior Maria Tedesco (Ocean Township, N.J./St. Rose) and a three from Wall gave the Mavericks a 55-50 lead with 4:11 left. Alanna Speaks followed with a jumper to make it 55-52, but Bender scored four straight points and Wall added a layup to give Mercy a 61-52 lead with 2:49 left. Goldey-Beacom could not get closer than seven points for the remainder of the game, giving Mercy the win.
Mercy shot 36.4 percent (20-of-55) from the floor, 10.5 percent (2-of-19) from downtown and 78.8 percent (26-of-33) from the foul line. Goldey-Beacom shot 35.9 percent (23-of-64) from the field, 16.7 percent (3-of-18) from beyond the arc and 90.0 percent (9-of-10) from the charity stripe. Mercy held a 47-33 edge on the glass and Goldey-Beacom used 32 Mercy turnovers to hold a 30-18 edge in points off turnovers.
Head Coach Scott Lagas and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, December 31st when they play Sacred Heart at 1 p.m.
