Ferris State Opens Season 2-0 With Big Regional Road Victory Over Quincy

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's basketball squad opened the 2016-17 campaign with an unbeaten weekend as the Bulldogs beat Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) West Division favorite Quincy (Ill.) by a 97-81 count to wrap up the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge on Saturday (Nov. 12) evening in St. Louis, Mo.

FSU, which topped host Missouri-St. Louis in the season opener on Friday evening, came back against the Hawks and built a 48-37 halftime lead. Ferris State then withstood a Quincy rally in the second half and ultimately outscored QU 49-44 over the final 20 minutes to win the contest by 16 points in the neutral site showdown.

Sophomore Markese Mayfield scored 17 points off the bench for the Bulldogs and junior guard Peter Firlik added 16 points in the winning effort. FSU received 13 points from redshirt freshman post Cole Walker while sophomore center Zach Hankins added 12 points and newcomer Mory Diane tallied 11 points in his Bulldog debut.

Ferris State shot 56.4% from the floor and sank six-of-18 (33.3%) three's along with 29-of-33 (87.9%) free throws in improving to 2-0 overall this season. Quincy also shot better than 50% at a 51.7% clip with the Hawks making five-of-22 (22.7%) long range tries and 14-of-22 (63.6%) tries from the charity stripe.

Quincy received 22 points from standout Evan McGaughey with both Herm Senor II and Joseph Tagarelli adding 15 points apiece. Marcus Hinton also reached double-digits with 10 points in the setback.

Overall, FSU outrebounded the Hawks 37-25 for the night and produced an 8-4 edge in second chance production along with an 11-8 margin in fast break scoring. The game featured 14 lead changes and was tied five different times.

Ferris State finished with 18 turnovers to 17 for Quincy, but the Bulldogs also received 46 points off the bench to only 13 for the Quincy reserves.

Hankins led FSU on the glass with 11 rebounds and Walker pulled down seven for the Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Mayfield also came up five steals on the defensive end and FSU had five players total three assists or more as part of a 21-assist team effort in the victory.

The Hawks dropped to 1-1 on the year with the loss after beating Grand Valley State in their first game of the event on Friday evening in St. Louis.

Ferris State will return to Big Rapids for its home opener against Lewis (Ill.) on Saturday, Nov. 19, at FSU's Jim Wink Arena. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. (ET).