2026-27 Top 100 Teams Countdown #99: Mercyhurst Lakers

In just their second season at the DI level last season, the Lakers finished 10-8 in the NEC and 17-17 overall making it all the way to the conference title game where they fell to Long Island University. They are looking to finish near the top of the league again under Gary Manchel and a big part of that is the return of their second leading scorer last season, Jake Lemelman. Lemelman averaged 13.9 PPG, 2.5 REB,  3.2 AST, and 1.1 STL as a sophomore. They also added multiple key players in the portal with multiple senior guards but one in particularly goes by the name of Tennessee Rainwater from Le Moyne who is 6'6" and averaged north of double figures and 4 boards a night last season. The Lakers also added and maintained very nice big man depth returning Cameron Johnson and Chris Leman, but also picking up Deraje Agbaosi from Cal State Los Angeles and Bryan Akanmu over from Wagner. Both will be seniors. Overall, it's depth and experience that should win them north of 20 regular season games next season especially in the NEC.





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