The Mercy Mavericks women’s basketball team have made very game they played this year incredibly interesting to say the very least. The team started off with two losses by a deficit of six total points. It is quite obvious that Mercy has the skill and stamina to hang in very every single game until the end, it just seems that luck may not be on their side at this point in the season.

The team stands at 1-3.

In their second game of the year against now undefeated Keystone, the two teams were tied with just five seconds remaining. Keystone was able to connect with a foul shot to give the team the lead, and the Mavericks were unable to put the ball in the hoop in the final few seconds to get the win.

After a huge victory against Yeshiva in the Mavericks first home game of the season, in which the Mavericks scored a season high 95 points, the team was in total control of the game starting from the opening tip-off.

The Mavericks next game was at home against St. Thomas Aquinas.

With the way things have gone for the team up until this point, it should be no surprise that this game also went down to the wire in the second half.  Guard Maggie Salomane and forward Tanazhya Augustine were the leading scorers for the team on the night, with Salomane scoring 20 points, on 4-for-10 shooting from the field, and connecting on 9-for-13 foul shots, and Augustine being the leading scorer with 21 points shooting 10 for 12 from the field, and grabbing six rebounds as well.  Going into the half, the score was 49-43 in favor of the Mavericks. Unfortunately for the Mavs, St. Thomas Aquinas was not going to go down easy, and both teams foudn themselves tied up at 88 with just five seconds remaining in the game. After Mavericks guard Shayne Ortiz was able to connect with two free throws to toe the game, STAC was able to drive all the way down after the in-bounds pass to hit a game winning buzzer beater shot that gave them the victory by a score of 90-88.

The Mavericks next game is on Dec. 9 against Wilmington University in Delaware.

In other news for the Mavericks, Sophomore guard Shayne Ortiz is having herself a great season so far. The guard ranks tenth in assists, and ninth in steals per game according to the NCAA Division II statistical rankings.  In the East Coast conference, Ortiz ranks first in assists per game with six, second in steals with four, and has an assist to turnover ratio of 4.0. The Mavericks have a very talented starting five, and Ortiz is a big part of it.