DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Dec. 6, 2023) – Powered by four Mavericks scoring in double figures, the Mercy University women's basketball team earned a 60-51 win over ECC foe College of Staten Island on Wednesday night at the Neil Judge Student Athlete Center.
The Mavericks (7-2, 1-1 ECC) earn their first ECC win of the season and hand the Dolphins (5-3, 2-1 ECC) their first ECC loss of the season.
Mercy was led by sophomore Angelina Barrera (Gloucester City, N.J./Gloucester Catholic) who had a game-high 17 points with 10 rebounds. Senior Maria Tedesco (Ocean Township, N.J./St. Rose) added a season-high 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting with five rebounds. Graduate student Katie Wall (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) nearly recorded a triple-double, finishing with 11 points, a game-high 11 rebounds and a game-high eight assists. Junior Jaclyn Stanavich (Amsterdam, N.Y./Amsterdam) netted 11 points and junior Kayla Halvorsen (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Dobbs Ferry) contributed five points.
Staten Island was led by Jenalyse Alarcon who had a team-high 13 points.
The Mavericks jumped out to a 7-2 lead with 7:52 left in the first quarter after a Tedesco three-point play. Staten Island scored the next four points to make it 7-6 before Mercy stormed back on a 12-1 run to take a 19-7 lead after a freshman Amani Abuhatab (West Haven, Conn./West Haven) free throw. A late Elizabeth Lofaro layup cut Mercy's lead to 19-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Mercy opened the second quarter on a 6-2 spurt, capped off by a Wall layup, to build the lead to 14, 25-11, with 6:16 left in the half. The Dolphins followed with an 8-3 run to cut the Mavericks lead to nine, 28-19. However, back-to-back layups from Barrera to close out the half gave Mercy a 32-19 lead at halftime.
A Wall three at the 8:53 mark of the third quarter gave Mercy a 37-21 lead. The Dolphins went on a 14-4 run to cut the Mavericks lead to six, 41-35, with 2:42 on the clock, forcing a Mercy timeout. Following the timeout, Stanavich connected on a three-point play and Barrera drained a layup to give Mercy a 46-35 lead. Staten Island closed the quarter with four straight points to head into the fourth quarter down seven, 46-39.
A pair of Madison Haggett free throws to open the fourth quarter trimmed the Mavericks lead to five, 46-41. After a pair of Tedesco free throws, the Dolphins once again made it a five-point game, 48-43, with 7:36 left. A layup from Tedesco and a three from Halvorsen increased the Mercy lead back to 10, 53-43, with 5:29 remaining. Staten Island scored the next six points to make it 53-49 with 3:36 on the clock. A Barrera layup and three Wall free throws gave Mercy a 58-49 advantage with 12 seconds left. Kaia Johnson drained a layup to make it 58-51 before Barrera went 2-of-2 from the line to finish off the 60-51 win for Mercy.
Mercy shot 41.8 percent (23-of-55) from the floor, 12.5 percent (2-of-16) from downtown and 75.0 percent (12-of-16) from the foul line. Staten Island shot 23.2 percent (13-of-56) from the field, 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from beyond the arc and 80.8 percent (21-of-26) from the charity stripe. Mercy held a 39-36 edge on the glass.
Head Coach Scott Lagas and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, December 9th when they play at UDC at 1 p.m.
