Lions Beat Mercer On Sophomore Night

North Branch, NJ - On Tuesday night the RVCC Women's Basketball sophomores were honored before the game for the contributions to the program over the last two seasons. Antonia Polvere, Judith Vila, and Julia Fontanillo were applauded before the game, and subsequently congratulated after, for their 74-69 win over the visiting Vikings from Mercer County Community College. The Lions lost the first contest to the Vikings back in November and because of the win will now see them again in the first round of the playoffs. 

The Vikings made a layup off the opening jump ball to take an early 2-0 lead. However, after the Lions came back and tied up the game, Mercer never led again. Julia Fontanillo has been a jack of all trades for the Lions the past two seasons and showed her value in every facet of the game on Tuesday night. She was once again a few assists away from a triple double and led the team in every statistically category except points and blocks. She finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, while only accounting for 2 turnovers. Polvere and Vila each found their way into the box score with 1 and 3 points respectively. Polvere's assist to Ona Riopedre to start the game forced Mercer out of their zone defense just two possessions into the match. Vila's made three pointer in the third quater helped the Lions extend their biggest lead of the night.

While it was sophomore night, it was a trio of freshman that came out shining. Sophia Larsen connected on 50% of her attempts from downtown, canning 5 trifectas, to help her achieve a team high 24 points. Her game was well rounded as she finished with 5 boards, 5 assists, and 3 steals on the night all while being responsible for guarding Mercer's biggest offensive threat. Fellow freshman, Ona Riopedre, was second on the team in scoring and rebounding with 16 and 7 respectively. Riopedre's cool demeanor from the free throw line helped the Lions put the game out of reach for the Vikings in the fourth quarter. Another freshman, Telma Comba, got her shine on as well to the tune of 11 points and 4 rebounds off the bench. While the Lions had more turnovers than the Vikings, they outrebounded their counterparts by 12. 

With the win the Lions improve to 18-10 on the season and will now host Mercer in the first round of the Region XIX Division II playoffs on Tuesday the 25th at 5 PM.