ERIE, PA. – FDU women's basketball (13-3, 3-0) defeated Mercyhurst (4-11, 1-3) on the road on Saturday by a score of 77-63. The Knights overcame an early deficit to pick up the win in their first ever meeting with Mercyhurst.
Abaigeal Babore paved the way for FDU, leading the team with a career-high 22 points.
FDU began the game in an early hole, thanks to some electric offense from Mercyhurst. The Lakers had up to an 11-point lead, which they held with four minutes to go in the first quarter. After the first frame, Mercyhurst held a 25-19 lead over the Knights. The lead for the Lakers continued to balloon in the second quarter after a series of baskets from Bailey Kuhns, the NEC's leading scorer.
A layup from Kuhns at the eight-minute gave the Lakers a ten-point lead in the second. After that, the Knights flipped a switch.
FDU proceeded to rip off a 15-0 run until the two-minute mark in the second, taking the lead. FDU rode that momentum into the halftime break, where they stood with a 39-33 lead. The Knights would not relinquish the lead from that point on.
The Knights poured in bucket after bucket across the second half, shooting 52% across the third and fourth quarters. The game tightened up just a bit towards the tail end of the fourth, when Mercyhurst cut things to single-digits with four minutes to go. From that point on, Babore and Renninger turned into closers for FDU. Babore scored four points across the final four minutes, and Renninger scored six across the same span.
Things wrapped up with the Knights' third win of the early Northeast Conference season, positioning them atop the NEC leaderboard, tied with Stonehill at 3-0 in conference play. The Knights are also now on a six-game winning streak, starting on December 19.
THE STATS
- Abby Babore scored 22 points in the victory, a career-high for the graduate student and captain.
- Babore scored an astonishing 12 of her 22 points from the charity stripe, going 12-for-16 at the line.
- The Merchantville, N.J. native also brought in six rebounds, four assists, and recorded a steal.
- Babore is now averaging double-figures this season, with 10.5 PPG. She is now one of three Knights scoring in double figures this season.
- Teneisia Brown continued what has been an overwhelmingly efficient season, bringing in 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
- Brown now averages 14.1 PPG on the season to lead the Knights.
- Ava Renninger continued her spectacular freshman campaign, scoring 13 points to help close the game out for FDU.
- Kailee McDonald has broken out as a premium part of head coach Stephanie Gaitley's rotation.
- McDonald logged a career-high 26 minutes off of the bench in the win.
- The Lowell, MA native flirted with a double-double, scoring eight points and bringing in 10 rebounds.
- A whopping seven of McDonald's 10 rebounds came on the offensive end of the floor.
- The Knights had one of their cleanest games of basketball to date, turning the ball over only seven times.
- As a team, the Knights had a nine-to-seven turnover ratio.
- FDU out-rebounded Mercyhurst 27 to 23.
WHAT'S NEXT
With their Pennsylvania road trip complete, the Knights will now head back to New Jersey and get a week off. The Knights will be back in action on Saturday, January 18, when they welcome CCSU to Hackensack. That game will be part of a men's/women's double-header on the YES Network, with tip-off coming at 1:00 p.m.
Connect with FDU Women's Basketball on X and Instagram, @FDUKnightsWBB.
Segovia Steakhouse is the presenting sponsor of the 2024-25 FDU Women's Basketball season.
