As Cici Hernandez spent time moving in and out of the starting lineup earlier this season, Mercyhurst University women\u2019s basketball coach Erin Mills-Reid delivered a consistent message.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a 20-a-night kid, and you don\u2019t even know it yet,\u201d Mills-Reid recalled telling Hernandez.<\/p>\n
Over the last month, Hernandez has started to fulfill her first-year coach\u2019s vision for her. The Bethlehem Catholic graduate and sophomore guard scored at least 20 points four times in 10 January games. She averaged 17.3 points over those 10 games to boost her season average to 13.0 points per game, ranking her fourth in the Northeast Conference.<\/p>\n
Hernandez\u2019s scoring punch has helped the Lakers turn a corner since conference play began. Mercyhurst (7-14 overall, 7-3 NEC) went 7-3 in January to climb to third in the NEC, behind preseason favorite Fairleigh Dickinson and Long Island University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our confidence was the biggest thing,\u201d Hernandez said of what prompted the turnaround. \u201cNot only believing in the system, but believing in ourselves and our work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mills-Reid preached positivity throughout nonleague play. She knew a schedule that included visits to Top-25 teams Michigan State, Iowa State and West Virginia would test Mercyhurst\u2019s mettle. An 0-11 finish in nonleague games and 0-12 start overall could have broken the Lakers.<\/p>\n
Mills-Reid stayed the course. She kept the Lakers believing in her coaching system, which includes pressuring opponents and trying to limit their possessions. She asked players to sacrifice their bodies by taking charges, something Hernandez said she had never done before.<\/p>\n
The Lakers have started to see the payoff. They recently ripped off six straight wins for the first time since 2020. Mercyhurst was a Division II program then; it made the move to Division I before the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
Hernandez has contributed all over the floor during Mercyhurst\u2019s 2026 surge. She made at least four 3-pointers four times in January. She has dished out at least three assists in five of her last seven games. She has become a player Mills-Reid likes to post up despite her stature; Hernandez stands 5-foot-6.<\/p>\n
Hernandez has even become one of the team\u2019s top charge-takers. \u201cI think she\u2019s really now just starting to realize in the last 2-3 games, \u2018Oh, wow, this is a momentum shift, when you take a big charge like this,\u2019 \u201d Mills-Reid said. \u201cI always joke that Cici takes real ones. She\u2019s not afraid to put her body on the line there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez has also assumed a vocal leadership role for a team with 12 freshmen and sophomores among its 15 players. Her next step toward becoming a complete player is improving her boxouts and rebounding, Mills-Reid said.<\/p>\n
Hernandez\u2019s priority for the next few weeks is carrying January\u2019s success into February and March. The Lakers have eight games left in the regular season. Four of their next five are on the road, inclusion visits to Fairleigh Dickinson and LIU.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we\u2019re winning, I think I\u2019m doing good,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main goal. As long as the team is being successful, then I guess I\u2019m doing my part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bulldogs building: The DeSales men have won three straight games to climb into a four-way tie for the MAC Freedom Conference lead with Misericordia, Arcadia and Stevens. The Bulldogs (11-8 overall, 6-2 MAC Freedom Conference) wiped out a five-point deficit with 20 seconds left to force overtime Saturday against Delaware Valley before claiming a 77-69 win.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Luke Keppel (Whitehall) delivered a 15-point, six-rebound, five-steal afternoon to continue his solid all-around play. He ranks second on the Bulldogs in scoring (10.9 points per game), rebounds (3.9 per game) and steals (17).<\/p>\n
The DeSales women, meanwhile, own sole possession of first place in the MAC Freedom Conference after stretching their winning streak to four games by beating Delaware Valley on Saturday. The Bulldogs (13-6 overall, 7-1 MAC Freedom Conference) got 16 points and sixrebounds from Northern Lehigh graduate Aubrey Pollard, a sophomore forward.<\/p>\n
Tip-ins: Lehigh men\u2019s coach Brett Reed needs three more wins to become the second coach in Patriot League history with 300 wins. The Mountain Hawks (10-13 overall, 6-4 Patriot League) are tied for third in the league with American after earning an overtime win Saturday against Colgate. \u2026 Moravian senior Marquis Ratcliff (Pottsville Nativity BVM) swatted a career-high seven shots Saturday to become the first player in program history with 200 career blocks. He has 205 career blocks heading into Wednesday\u2019s game at Scranton.<\/p>\n
Stephen Miller is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Cici Hernandez spent time moving in and out of the starting lineup earlier this season, Mercyhurst University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,2300,726,432],"class_list":["post-105178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-college-sports","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}