Bears Hammer Mercyhurst, 81-55.
BERKELEY - After a slow start, the Bears ran away from an overmatched Mercyhurst squad for an 81-55 victory at Haas Pavilion. Frosh point guard Jeremiah Wilkinson continued his strong 3-game run in the continued absence of starting point guard Jovan Blacksher, scoring an efficient 25 points on 9-of-12 from the floor and 6-of-8 from 3. He also collected 4 assists and 2 steals in the win. Wing Andrej Stojakovic also dropped in 15 along with 13 from forward Josh Ola-Joseph.
The Bears got 17 rebounds from centers Mady Sissoko (9) and Lee Dort with 8. The duo combined for 10 points from the floor.
Mercyhurst is in its first season as an NCAA Division I program. The Lakers established themselves as a consistent and competitive program at the Division II level under head coach Gary Manchel, who has won 377 games in 22 seasons at Mercyhurst. The Lakers collected their first win as a D1 program with a victory over Morgan State earlier this season and entered the game 4-3 after losing to Air Force, 82-49.
The game started with a big Sissoko slam but the Bears went cold from there, going scoreless for the next 4 ½ minutes, falling behind 6-2 five minutes in. Following the early draught, an 8-0 run over the next minute and a half with four a piece from Wilkinson and Stojakovic put the Bears up 10-6 with a lead they’d never relinquish.
After the Bears’ lead grew to 9 on a Wilkinson 3 pointer, a pair of Mercyhurst buckets narrowed the lead to 5 before the Bears took off with a 20-7 run to go up 41-23 at the break. Forward Spencer Mahoney hit a pair of 3’s in the run, taking advantage of his extra playing time opportunities, finishing with 8 for the night in 12 minutes on the floor. Stojakovic and Wilkinson also pitched in 3’s and point guard Christian Tucker closed the half with a nice driving bucket in traffic.
The Bears stepped on the gas in the second half. After maintaining their 20-point lead till the 10-minute mark, they went on a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 30 in little more than a 2-minute span with balanced scoring from four different players.
Reserve center Devin Curtis got in on the action, coming in late and drilling a 3-point shot from the top of the key and hitting the and-one for a 4-point play to give the Bears their biggest lead of the night at 81-48 with 2:50 remaining. After the Bears emptied their bench with several walk-ons getting their first playing time of the season, Mercyhurst ended the game scoring the final 7 points, all by frosh guard Jake Lemelman.
"The ball really was moving tonight, 14 assists," head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. "It was not sticking in any one player's hand. Guys are really trying to move the ball and that was great to see.
"We had a lot of different people contribute. I was proud of everyone that set foot on the floor. You look at Devin Curtis going in there, quality minutes there at the end. But very, very proud of the team.
"When Jeremiah first got here, we realized right away that he's a phenomenal shooter, but early on in the summer, because we get here in early June, and we're working on the court. We're doing team-building activities. I'm bringing the team to the house, and he was passing up a lot of threes. I said, 'Jeremiah, if you pass up threes, that's a reason for us not to play you as much, because the team is so competitive.'
"He's really embraced shooting the open three, but then he does so much more beyond that. He gets to the rim. He makes his teammates better. He rebounds, he defends, he gets steals. It was impressive here tonight."
The Bears moved to 6-1 on the season and will next face Missouri Tuesday at 4 pm PST in the ACC/SEC Classic in Columbia, MO. The Tigers will bring an identical 6-1 record into the game, with their lone loss coming at the hands of Memphis in their season opener. They are led by former Cal guard Dennis Gates, who replaced former Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin in 2022.
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