Davis Leads Men's Basketball to First Conference Win over UMass-Lowell
Capturing their first Northeast-10 Conference win of the season,
the Merrimack men's basketball Warriors built a seven point
halftime lead and never looked back en route to a 71-56 win at home
over UMass-Lowell Sunday afternoon.
Merrimack delivered Lowell their first loss of the year after
the River Hawks won the opening four, including two Conference
contests.
Sophomore Roland Davis (Deer
Park, NY) led four Warriors in double figures, scoring 17
points, including nine points from beyond the arc. Davis
opened the scoring as part of a 9-0 Merrimack run to start the
game.
Darren
Duncan (Briarwood, NY) recorded 13 points on the night
to go with nine assists and five rebounds. Duncan needs 10
points to surpass Justin Leith '04 (1,565) on the all-time scoring
list as the ninth-leading scorer in program history.
The only time at which the game was tied was at 14-14 at the
9:21 mark of the first half before the Warriors went on an 11-4 run
to end the half, fueled by five points from Davis.
The Warriors were out-rebounded for the fifth time this season
(54-39), but held the River Hawks to just 28.0% shooting from the
field, which head coach Bert Hammel was clearly
happy with.
"We played a solid game on the defensive end, which allowed us
to get off to a fast start," said Hammel following his Warriors
second win of the season. "We certainly need to improve our
rebounding effort, but I'm pleased with our defense on the whole."
Improving the all-time series history to 27-22 in favor of
Merrimack, the Warriors have won two straight dating back to last
year's first round overtime win in the NCAA East Regional
tournament.
The Warriors, who improved to 2-3 (1-2 NE-10) with the win,
return to action at home against Franklin Pierce University on
Wednesday, December 2 with a 7:30pm tip following the women's
5:30pm contest.
