Rich Ragan Family Court, UPJ – It was another tough game for a bruised and battered UPJ Mountain Cats basketball team as they fell to the Mercyhurst University Lakers on Saturday 88-73.
UPJ started the scoring, but Mercyhurst soon took control and went into a tear. The Lakers drained four 3-pointers before the halfway point of the first half. They then had some foul trouble, but UPJ struggled to find some mojo on offense, and Mercyhurst would go into halftime leading, 44-31.
After half, it was more of the same for Mercyhurst, as they kept their offense humming, distributing the wealth to multiple members of their team. In the end, the Lakers drained a whopping sixteen 3-pointers. The deficit turned out to be too much for the Mountain Cats, and they fell to the Lakers, 88-73. This was the ninth straight loss for UPJ.
Mercyhurst was led in a big way by freshman guard Alexander Parks, who was dominant from start to finish. Parks dropped 23 points, including five 3-pointers, as well as 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Senior forward Jeff Plantunis, who is the leading points scorer for the Lakers this season, also had a good game. Plantunis scored 19 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal. Sophomore guard Sean Fullerton added to the score by sinking 16 points, 5 rebounds and 1 steal.
For UPJ, freshman guard Vinnie Cugini was a bright spot for the Mountain Cats and had both a season and career-high performance in points scored. Cugini racked up 18 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. He was just one of many young players to play to see action for the Mountain Cats with the injury bug going around the team.
Some other Mountain Cats also had a decent game in the loss. Sophomore guard Will Kromka contributed 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists, while freshman forward Gavin Headings added 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists.
After the game, Cugini explained that getting to start and play was a huge boost to his confidence.
“It felt pretty good. It wasn’t my start. I started against CAL U. I was really nervous that game, and that just helped me settle down this game. Playing good really helped my confidence and the coaches have helped all week saying, ‘we’re down but next guy up’.” said Cugini.
Cugini explained both that the loss was a result of turnovers by UPJ and that Mercyhurst’s shooting was superb.
“We had a little too many turnovers, and we just weren’t contesting enough. That’s on all of us. We’d contest the shot; [but] they shot the ball well, and we’ve got to get closer on the contests.” said Cugini.
UPJ head coach Bob Rukavina commended the efforts of Cugini and expressed how he continues to develop as a promising freshman.
“We’ve been telling Vinnie that he needs to just go play his game. He’s sort of tentative. He broke the district 7 scoring record, and I think he wants to feel like, ‘I’m a team guy’. He has that capability and I thought today was the best game he played. He loosened up, he hit some pull up jump shots, he was very aggressive and that was really positive thing to see from him. So, it was good to see.” said Rukavina.
Coach Rukavina added that this young team is gaining valuable experience with injuries to upperclassmen and that morale in the locker room is still good during the nine-game skid.
“I think it’s (morale) still been good. I just told them that ‘losing is misery for everyone,’ but all you can do is keep battling and try to battle our way out of it and try to get a couple wins before the season ends…. A lot of guys are getting experience with the injuries we’ve had that weren’t getting a lot of time and now they’re getting that.” said Rukavina.
With this defeat, the Mountain Cats see their record fall to 5-16 (3-12 in the PSAC West). Mercyhurst brings their overall record another step closer to .500 at 11-12 (7-8 PSAC West).
UPJ will be back in action on Wednesday, February 7, when they go on the road to matchup with Clarion at 7:30 pm. The Mountain Cats will return home to take on Edinboro on Saturday, February 10 at 3 pm.