Mercyhurst women’s basketball kicked off their season last weekend against the University of Charleston and West Liberty University on Friday, Nov. 11.

The Lakers’ season was underway as they took on the Charleston Eagles. The Lakers held a 10 point lead in the first quarter and led for the majority of the game. Charleston came back in the second half to secure a lead, but the Lakers rallied to tie the game in the final minutes by heroic efforts from senior guard Jayde Boyd who scored 11 points in a row.

In the last minute of the game Charleston pulled away, eventually winning by a score of 74-78. The Lakers came out very strong and showed a lot of resilience in their first game of the season despite not being able to get their first win. Boyd led the charge for the Lakers with 22 points followed by fellow senior guard Julia Buchman who had 14 points respectively.

Jayde Boyd had an impressive start to the season.

“I can contribute a lot of my success to my teammates. We were really sharing the ball as a team which allowed for us to find the advantages in the offense to get the ball to the open person.”

The Lakers then had a quick turnaround Saturday facing off against West Liberty’s Hilltoppers. In just the first quarter, West Liberty had a nine point lead and a twelve point lead going into the first half. The Lakers came into the second half determined to fight back and with less than three minutes in the final quarter freshman forward Bailey Kuhn made two free throws and hit a jump shot twenty seconds later.

In the following plays the Lakers forced three stops from the Hilltoppers offensive efforts and capitalized. With just 17 seconds left in the game Danielle Grim crossed her defender and made a jump shot to force the game to overtime.

Grim, the young sophomore, showed a lot of confidence on the court with 26 points in 43 minutes of action making strong plays both offensively and defensively. Grim shared her thoughts after making a shot to tie the game.

“With 20 seconds left, I was thinking about how much I wanted to make a play and make that shot for my teammates and coaches,” said Grim.

“My teammates and coaches had put so much trust in me to take that final shot and nothing I wanted more than to make it for them so we could send it into OT and have a chance at winning. Throughout the game, I just wanted to do whatever I could to help the team win.”

In overtime both teams played hard back and forth but neither could come out ahead. The game moved into a second overtime and with a three point shot by sophomore Grace Clary which put the Lakers at a four point lead. However, the Hilltoppers did not back off and responded after being fouled. On the free throw line they hit three free throws in a row to tie the game up.

The game was 107-107 with 26 seconds left in the second over-time, which gave the Hilltoppers just enough time to set up a play that they executed. Off an out of bounds play they passed the ball on the inside of the paint where the Lakers were forced to take a shooting foul in all efforts to prevent any shots being put up.

West Liberty’s shooter made her free throw which ended the game with a score of 108-107.

“While we didn’t get the out-come we had hoped for, I think it was a promising and hopeful experience that we can seriously learn and grow from. We have a really special group where everyone is truly bought in and just has that hunger to win,” said Boyd.

The Lakers are scheduled to play Tiffin University on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m.