RELEASE DATE: 12/06/09

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mountaineers host Mercyhurst Monday in first doubleheader of the season

MANSFIELD – The Mansfield University women’s and men’s basketball teams will play their first home doubleheader of the season when the Mountaineers host PSAC West rival Mercyhurst Monday evening in Decker Gymnasium.

Game time is 5:30 p.m. for the women and 7:30 p.m. for the men. Both games are scheduled to be broadcast live on WNTE 89.5 FM and streamed live on the internet at www.GoMounties.com.

Admission is just $3 as part of Everyone is a Student Night with MU students free with ID.

It marks the first home game of the season for the Mountaineer women who are 2-3 on the year after suffering a 67-56 setback at Lock Haven last Tuesday. Mercyhurst is 1-3 on the year after dropping a 64-45 decision at Northwood in their last outing.

The Mountaineer men have played their first four games of the season at Decker Gymnasium where they are undefeated after beating Penn State-DuBois and Penn College last week. Mercyhurst is 3-2 after dropping a 70-67 thriller at Urbana last week.

Mallory Hafer has been the top scoring threat for the Mansfield women thus far this season. The grad student is averaging 16.2 point per game over the first five games of the season. A long-distance specialist, Hafer has connected on 18-37 of her 3-point attempts while scoring in double figures in four of five games. Sophomore forward Mallory Moore is averaging 13.0 points and a team-best 9.4 rebounds per game while junior guard Nicole Pender is averaging 11.8 points per game.

Mercyhurst has played a tough opening season schedule with losses to West Virginia Wesleyan, Ashland and Northwood so far this season. The Lakers are led by forward Amy Achesinski who averages 13.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

Mansfield head coach Ruth Hermansen was a standout at Mercyhurst from 1988-91. Hermansen has yet to beat her alma mater in six tries as the head coach at MU.

The Mountaineer men are one of the top scoring teams in the PSAC and are hoping to improve to 5-0 for the first time since starting the 2007-08 season by winning their first five games on the way to a 9-1 start.

Mansfield, which has scored 81 or more points in all four games this year, is averaging 90.2 points per game.

Junior forward Yuseff Carr has scored in double figures in all four games this year and leads the team in scoring (17.0 ppg) and is second in rebounding (6.3 rpg). The big man has connected on 76% of his shots (30-39) from the floor.

Sophomore forward Tony Fannick has also scored in double figures in all four games this year and is averaging 16.5 points and team-best 6.8 rebounds per game. Senior guard Ryan Callahan is averaging 12.0 points per outing while senior Chris Pender sports a 10.5 points per game average.

Mercyhurst has 10 players who have started at least once so far this season. Guard Heiden Ratner, a transfer from Division I James Madison, tops the team in scoring averaging 12.4 points per game with forward Jordan Armstrong, a transfer from Division I Southern Illinois, and Elliot Engelmann, a transfer from Division I Butler, both averaging 10.6 points per contest.