Syracuse, N.Y. \u2013 Bernie Blunt is well aware of his dad\u2019s prolific high school career.<\/p>\n
The Mercyhurst guard, who will play against Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome Wednesday night, said his grandmother recorded all of his dad\u2019s games when Bernard Jr. played at Jamesville-DeWitt.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom time to time, we\u2019ll put it on as a family and watch it,\u201d Bernie said, \u201cand he\u2019ll comment, like, \u2018Oh, you see how I did that move\u2019 and this and that. I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, I understand it. I see it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Bernard Blunt Jr., who played at J-D from 1985-90, still holds the record for most Section III career points with 2,507.<\/p>\n
Bernie III, a 5-foot-11 guard, headlines a Mercyhurst team that jumped from Division II to Division I in the fall of 2024. In 29 minutes per game, he averages 16.6 points on 39.3% (24-of-61) shooting from the 3-point line for the 4-7 Lakers.<\/p>\n
He is playing a fifth year of college basketball, mostly because his junior college coach called him when a ruling from the NCAA came down that permitted players with JUCO experience to regain that year in Division I athletics.<\/p>\n
Blunt, who grew up in Pennsylvania, began his career at Quinnipiac, but when his coach left for a different position, Blunt moved on to Harcum College. From there, he played at Edinboro, a Division II school.<\/p>\n
There, he attracted the attention of Mercyhurst coach Gary Manchel. Edinboro and Mercyhurst played in the same league before Mercyhurst bumped up to Division I.<\/p>\n
When Blunt entered the transfer portal, Manchel pounced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just really impressed with his level of talent. I mean, he has deep range. He gets to the foul line. He has a good handle,\u201d Manchel said. \u201cHe just scores at all three levels. He can go off the dribble. He can get to the free throw line and he can shoot the basketball beyond the arc.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manchel was not only impressed with Blunt\u2019s basketball skills. He was a \u201c3.9-4.0\u2033 student who \u201cis one of the nicest young men I\u2019ve ever coached in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manchel said the two spoke for a few weeks before Blunt committed to Mercyhurst.<\/p>\n
Blunt averaged 12.5 points for the Lakers last season. He said he would have been content to finish his college career, but after Mercyhurst\u2019s compliance office petitioned for an extra year, it allowed Blunt to reframe his personal and team\u2019s goals for 2025-26.<\/p>\n
He was a preseason All-NEC pick and is Mercyhurst\u2019s leading scorer. Blunt said he is facing the kind of defensive scrutiny that comes with those distinctions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m just going over film and making sure I do the right reads because I\u2019m at the top of everyone\u2019s scouting report,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Blunt can play on the ball or off the ball and said he has no position preference.<\/p>\n
He considers himself, he said, a guy who plays hard and wants to win. Manchel describes Blunt as \u201cone of the most clutch players I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my best attribute is shooting, and I think I play off the bounce pretty well,\u201d Blunt said. \u201cWhere I\u2019m underrated, I think, is I can pass a little bit. But really, I\u2019m just this player that really wants to win and I\u2019ll do what it takes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blunt still has many relatives in Syracuse, including his grandmother and his dad\u2019s entire side of the family.<\/p>\n
He is expecting plenty of support in the dome when Wednesday\u2019s game tips at 7 p.m. <\/p>\n
His dad, who went on to star at St. Joseph\u2019s, is now the director of Explosion Basketball, an AAU program in suburban Philadelphia. Bernard Blunt Jr. was named to the St. Joe\u2019s Hall of Fame (2000) and the Big 5 Basketball Hall of Fame (2001). Bernie said he and his dad are close. <\/p>\n
Bernie said he visits his grandmother, his aunt and other relatives during Syracuse summers. Mercyhurst plays in the same conference as Le Moyne and will be back in Syracuse in February.<\/p>\n
The game in the JMA Wireless Dome offers a different challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d Blunt said. \u201cSyracuse is a very good team and we\u2019re going to play really hard. I\u2019m just going to take it all in, the fans, the gym, the court, just everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syracuse, N.Y. \u2013 Bernie Blunt is well aware of his dad\u2019s prolific high school career. The Mercyhurst guard,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5956,136,138,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-62429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-erie","10":"tag-erie-headlines","11":"tag-erie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62429","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=62429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}