Molloy University Athletics

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Dec. 9, 2015) - For the Molloy College men's basketball team, last Wednesday (Dec. 2) seemed like the longest night of the year as the seconds ticked away to the Lions' first victory of the 2015-16 season. Now, the maroon and white will look to attain a winning streak for the first time in the new campaign as the Lions visit Dobbs Ferry Wednesday night (Dec. 9) and take on Mercy College in the first ECC contest for Molloy of the year.

The Lowdown on the Lions
Free-throw shooting played a major role for Molloy in a 74-58 victory over Dominican (N.Y.) last Wednesday, with the Lions collecting their best performance from the stripe of the season and of recent memory. The maroon and white hit 21-of-22 (95.5%) from the line with senior guard Brandon Williams (Baldwin, N.Y.) leading the charge on an 8-for-8 evening. Williams and junior Charlie Marquardt (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) had a game-high 16 points while fellow junior Jaylen Morris (Amherst, N.Y.) had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Senior forward Kevin Bowles (Wantagh, N.Y.) continue to impress with an eight-point, nine-board performance with sophomore Curtis Jenkins (Farmingdale, N.Y.) turning in a similar game of eight-and-nine and senior Maurice Gatson (New York, N.Y.) scored 10 points off the bench in the victory.

A Tie Is Just As Successful As A Win...Somewhat
For Molloy, winning the rebounding battle also meant not letting the Chargers bully them down low in the blocks. While the Lions did not actually win the battle, the team did not lose it either, achieving 40 rebounds to Dominican's 40 boards. Additionally, Molloy was careful with the basketball in committing nine turnovers for the second consecutive contest while forcing 17 Chargers mistakes in the victory.

Schedule-Makers Play Deja Vu
This will be the second straight season that Molloy will open its East Coast Conference portion of the schedule against Mercy College. Last year's edition, held on Dec. 4, 2014 at Quealy Gymnasium saw Morris, Marquardt and Williams combine for 50 of the Lions' 78 points in a 78-65 victory over the Mavericks. Williams was 12-for-12 from the free-throw line in the win with five assists and six rebounds to boot. Morris had a game-high 23 points on a 9-for-15 shooting performance and Marquardt rained down three trifectas to collect a 13-point outing.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Mercy College comes into Wednesday night's dance with a 1-3 record despite playing five games on the season. That's because the Mavericks played an exhibition contest last Wednesday night and almost knocked off Division I opponent Norfolk State, falling to the Spartans by a score of 71-65. In the Mavs' last contest, a 17-point lead and a 10-point edge at halftime were undone by 24 team turnovers as Mercy fell to LIU Post 71-63 in Brookville, N.Y. Junior forward William Robinson (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) had a team-best 21 points and also collected 10 rebounds while senior guard Shaquille Stokes (Harlem, N.Y.) scored 20 points in the losing effort. The Mavericks only got three points from their bench as senior guard Jason Quijada (Monsey, N.Y.) hit a three-pointer for the team's lone contributions from outside the starting five.

A Crew of Transfers
Mercy College Head Coach Dr. Jody King has just one player on his roster that is straight out of high school, in freshman center Dominick Nuzzo (Berlin, Conn.). The rest of the Mavericks come from a wide variety of institutions ranging from Divisions I, II and III of the NCAA as well as the NJCAA ranks. Robinson is from Nyack College, Quijada is from Rockland Community College and leading point-scorer Tyseem Lyles (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was originally at Tompkins Cortland C.C. Starting guard K.J. Rose (Binghamton, N.Y.) played for Fairfield University before coming to Mercy while oft-used guard Eric Roberts (Anchorage, Alaska) was a member of the Creighton University Bluejays, and the list continues from there.

Rivalry of the 90s, 2000s and Today
Mercy College has bragging rights in that the Mavericks were victorious in the first six matchups of this rivalry beginning in the 1991-92 season. It just so happens that since then, Molloy has gone 32-11 against Mercy for an overall series lead of 32-17 between the two schools. It's been a while since Mercy has defeated Molloy, with the Mavericks last beating the Lions on Feb. 1, 2012 in a 72-63 victory.