West Windsor, NJ - The RVCC Women's Basketball team moved to 5-0 on the season with a hard earned win over Region foe Mercer County Community College on Tuesday night. The game was close all night with neither team being able to push the lead into double digits. The Lions shots weren't falling as they typically do which allowed Mercer to hang around for the entire contest.
The contest got off to a slow start as the Lions were only up 13-10 after the first stanza. An off shooting night coupled with Mercer's dominance on the boards really slowed the pace of the game for RVCC. The second quarter picked up a bit as RVCC was able to score 19 points to go into the half with a 32-28 lead. In the middle of the third quarter Mercer took their first lead of the half only to see Sophomore Ashley Hunt erase the deficit with one of her team high five three pointers a few seconds later. With the score tied at 51 a piece, Freshman forward Moira Phillips made a strong drive to the hoop to put the Lions up 2 going into the fourth.
Ashley Hunt scored 10 of her team high 31 in the fourth period connecting on all 3 of her attempts from downtown. Ashley notched her second double double of the season finishing with 10 rebounds and 7 assists as well. The Sophomore guard got plenty of help from Freshman Olivia Nilsen who finished the game with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals. Nilsen has scored in double figures in every game for the Lions this season. Only up 4 with one minute to go Hunt delivered a perfect pass in transition to fellow Sophomore Megan Mack who made the layup to seal the game for the Lions 73-67.
The Lions knew containing Mercer's two post players would be hard to do so minimizing their second chance opportunities would be huge, and that's just what the Lions did. Along with Hunt and Nilsen, Adrienne Amey (5 Reb), Claudia Edralin (5 Reb), and Moira Phillips (9 Reb) were able to control the boards.
The 5-0 start is the Lions best start in over a decade and has them sitting atop the rankings early in the season. The Lions are now 1-0 in Region XIX play and face Union County College when they return from Thanksgiving break on Tuesday, November 28th.