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Sports Women's b-ball drops sixth straight
By Rhonda Marable Staff writer After pushing hard in two first halves, the Mercyhurst women’s basketball team could not hold on, falling to Saginaw Valley State 91-72 and just missing a victory to Northwood 68-67. Thursday’s edge-of-the-seat thriller came down to the final possession with the Timberwolves taking back the lead and winning the game with a final lay-up. The Timberwolves went to work early building a lead in the first four minutes but a good jumper by sophomore guard Stevie Spetosky put Mercyhurst on the board, causing the Lakers to pick up the pace. With six-and-a-half minutes left, sophomore guard Paris Pugliese sunk a three-pointer to tie the game at 27. The next minute-and-a-half saw two more ties but the Timberwolves managed to pull away for a small lead, ending the first half 45-38. The Timberwolves led the Lakers with points in the paint, fast break points and points from turnovers. At the beginning of the second half, Northwood went on the offensive end and built a 13-point lead in four-and -a-half minutes. Led by freshman forward Amy Achesinski, the Lakers steadily chipped away at the lead and tied the game at 64 with 2:49 left to play. The Lakers took the lead 67-66 with 1:30 to play and after missed shots by both teams, the Timberwolves’ Katie Gonta made the game-winning lay-up with seven seconds left. In the end Achesinski led the Lakers with 19 points and seven rebounds, followed by Pugliese with 14 points and another seven rebounds. Freshman guard Samantha Loadman and junior guard Stephanie Prischak contributed 12 points each for the Lakers. Following Thursday’s game against Northwood, the Lakers pushed the pace early against Saginaw Valley on Saturday. After a halftime lead 46-42, the women could not persist and dropped 19 points to lose 91-72. Four Lakers went on to score double digits led by Achesinksi’s 23 points. Prischak led the offense, which shot 63 percent on three-pointers, and kept the lead for the first 20 minutes by as many as 13 points. The Cardinals answered back in the beginning of the second, however, with a 25-6 run taking the lead early at the 17:46 mark and never looking back. The Lakers worked to come back but could only come within eight points for the rest of the game. The Lakers’ shooting percentage took over a 15 percent drop in the second half, while the Cardinals improved, most especially from behind the arc by 17 percent. Backing up Achesinski, sophomore guard Mara Dreiser ended the game tying her career-high with 12 points and four rebounds. Prischak also contributed 12 points and four rebounds and Loadman was the fourth double-digit scoring Laker with 11 points. "I think that we are just constantly looking to improve in each game, especially now that the season is coming to an end.," said junior Prischak. "Even though we aren’t as successful as we would have liked, we need to stay focused for the rest of the season and look to continue to improve for next year." Loadman agrees. "I think the new players still have a lot of learning to do," she said. "We need to be able to play in a close game and take care of the ball, when it matters most." "The close games have given new players like me a lot of experience that will benefit the team next year," said Loadman. "We still need to improve our defense. Mercyhurst is now 6-16 for the season and 1-11 in the GLIAC and will host Wayne State University on Thursday.
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