The Pioneer Trail; Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015

2/11/2015 10:38:00 AM

Women's Basketball vs. Mercy - 5 p.m.
The LIU Post women's basketball team is in a good position to return to the East Coast Conference Tournament. If the Pioneers can continue to ride their current momentum, then the squad can take one step closer to officially securing their spot in the madness of March basketball. The green and gold will welcome in league foe Mercy to the Pratt Recreation Center tonight in the final contest of a four-game homestand.

LIU Post (13-8, 9-4 ECC) secured a 76-62 victory over Dowling on Saturday (Feb. 7) to improve its record at home to 6-2 on the season. The Pioneers put forth an impressive opening half of basketball, scoring 44 points on 42.8 percent shooting from the field (15-of-35) and from three-point range (9-of-21). Senior guard Ashley Castle (Brooklyn, N.Y.) hit five three-pointers in the first 20 minutes and fellow classmate Chelsea Williams (Copiague, N.Y.) had 18 of her game-high 24 points in the first half of play. The second half featured a dominating performance from junior center Nyasia Davis (Rahway, N.J.), as she scored 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor. Davis also corraled six rebounds in the second half, four of which came on the offensive glass.

Castle, Williams and Davis combined for 58 points in the game, as the Pioneers leaned heavily on those three stars to attain the victory. Castle would hit six three-pointers and finish with 22 points, while Davis recorded her 11th double-double of the season, scoring 22 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.

Williams is the best scorer in the conference, averaging 21.4 points per game. The reigning ECC Player of the Week has notched double-digit point totals in all but one contest this season and has a current 12-game streak of 14 or more points scored. Davis is averaging a double-double with clips of 13.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per contest. In fact, the 11 double-doubles achieved by Davis this season place her second in the conference and in a tie for 23rd in the nation in that category.

Mercy (8-13, 2-12 ECC) pulled off the biggest upset of the conference slate this year, defeating Queens by a score of 63-49 on Saturday (Feb. 7) in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Defensively, the Mavericks stunted Queens, holding the Knights to a .222 field-goal percentage. Meanwhile, Mercy shot 43.8 percent (7-of-16) from three-point range as freshman guard Casey Sullivan (East Lyme, Conn.) drilled four three-pointers in the victory. Junior guard Tatiana Parrish (Los Angeles, Calif.) led Mercy with 16 points and senior forward Tanayzha Augustine (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Senior center Brandone Roberts (Jessup, Md.) grabbed 11 rebounds and junior guard Erin Copeland (Kansas City, Kan.) dished out 11 assists for the Mavericks.

Augustine is the leading point-getter for the Mavericks, scoring 14.4 points per game. On the glass, Roberts is averaging 10.3 rebounds per game, one of just three players in the ECC to average over 10 boards per contest.

Mercy and LIU Post are two of the best rebounding teams in the conference. The Mavericks have a plus-6.2 rebounding margin, while the Pioneers are right behind them with a plus-5.8 rebounding advantage over their opponents. The difference, though, lies with how many rebounds per game each team is averaging. Mercy is tops in the conference with a 47.2 rebounds per game average, while LIU Post is sporting a 40.7 boards per contest clip. Another disparity between the teams is categorized in field-goal defense. Mercy is limiting opponents to an ECC-low 35.0 percent shooting from the field, while LIU Post is among the conference's worst at field-goal defense (42.4 percent).  

Men's Basketball vs. Mercy - 7:30 p.m.
With a game in hand, the LIU Post men's basketball team is sitting just outside of a potential tie for third place in the conference standings. With Molloy and Dowling idle tonight, the Pioneers will look to defeat last-place Mercy and enter themselves into the conversation for a Top-3 spot in the ECC playoff picture.

LIU Post (11-10, 6-7 ECC) utilized a 42-point performance from its bench to defeat a shorthanded Dowling squad, 82-68, at the Pratt Recreation Center on Saturday (Feb. 7). The triumvirate of guards - junior Akosa Maduegbunam (Hyde Park, Mass.) and seniors Isiah Stokley (Queens, N.Y.) and P.J. Torres (New Rochelle, N.Y.) - combined to shoot 18-for-38 (47.3 percent) from the field in the victory. Maduegbunam and Torres each scored 16 points, while Stokley added 10 points of his own. It was the performance of sophomore forward Greg Dotson (Abington, Pa.) that has Pioneer fans talking, however. Dotson scored a game-high 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including several rim-rocking dunks that brought the crowd to its feet on a number of occasions. The Pioneers dominated the intangibles, scoring 35 fast-break points, 58 points in the paint, and pulling down 51 rebounds for a plus-10 rebounding margin in the contest.

The calling card for the green and gold this season has been utter dominance on the glass. The Pioneers rank first in the ECC in every rebounding category, including rebounds per game (42.6) and rebounding margin (plus-6.6). LIU Post is also tops in the conference in field-goal defense, yielding a 39.6 percent clip to its opponents on perimeter shots. Individually, Dotson has cracked the Top-5 in the league in field-goal percentage (.529) and junior guard Dillon Burns (Staten Island, N.Y.) is among the Top-10 in assists per game (4.1). Torres is the team's best scorer, averaging 13.2 points per game.

Mercy (7-13, 2-12 ECC) has dropped its last three contests, including an 87-67 defeat at the hands of Queens on Saturday (Feb. 7) in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. The Mavericks suffered from a porous field-goal defense that allowed the Knights to hit 57.4 percent (27-of-47) of their perimeter shots. Mercy did shoot 49.0 percent (25-of-51) from the floor, but 21 turnovers proved to be too much of a hurdle to overcome. Junior forward Gerald McClease (New Haven, Conn.) led Mercy with 16 points and six rebounds in the loss.

Junior guard Jeremiah Brown (Queensbridge, N.Y.) is the leading scorer for the Mavericks, averaging 13.4 points per game. Brown ranks among the Top-10 field-goal shooters in the ECC, averaging 49.7 percent (76-of-153) from the floor, but he is also lethal from behind the three-point line. Brown's 54.7 percent clip from three-point range is the best in the conference by a wide margin.

While the trajectories of these two teams have been starkly different, Mercy does own the head-to-head edge this season. The Mavericks knocked off LIU Post, 89-84, back on Jan. 7 in Dobbs Ferry. In that game, four Mercy players had double-digit point totals, led by Brown's 19. McClease had 13 points for the Mavericks in that victory.