Men's Basketball Runs Past Mercy in Season Opener, 93-76

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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Beginning the 2024-25 season in front of their home fans, the University of Bridgeport's men's basketball team earned a 93-76 win over Mercy on Friday night. The comfortable victory puts the Purple Knights at 1-0 for the fifth consecutive year.

Trailing 21-18 at the 7:37 mark of the first half, it was all Bridgeport over the next 13 minutes of game time.

After closing the half on a 22-8 run, the Purple Knights stretched their lead all the way to 26 points early in the second half. From there, UB never led by less than 15 over the final 15 minutes of regulation.

Malikai Delgado led the Purple Knights' offense on Friday with a career-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

Aliou Cisse also impressed against the Mavericks, scoring 15 points to go along with a team-high of seven rebounds. He also added two blocks and two steals in his Bridgeport debut.

Speaking of steals, Nick Traill nabbed a team-best five of them as UB piled a stellar 19 as a team. Traill also finished with a stat line of five points, five rebounds and five assists (team high).

Jason Edokpayi served as UB's third double-digit scorer with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He also chipped in six offensive rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

Balance told much of the story for the Purple Knights as they had 11 players contribute at least one field goal and 11 players earn at least one assist.

In addition to the 19 steals, Bridgeport's defense forced 35 turnovers and scored 40 points off them. The Purple Knights haven't reached that total in a game since the 2019-20 season. UB was able to take 28 more shots in the contest than Post. 

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The Purple Knights will host Franklin Pierce on Sunday at 5 p.m. Prior to the contest, UB Athletics will be "retiring" the jerseys of Manute Bol, Lambert Shell and Stevie Ray as part of a pregame ceremony.