Seven Warriors in Double Figures Gives Men's Basketball win over Bridgeport
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – Sophomore Roland Davis (Deer
Park, NY) matched a career-high 22 points to lead the
Merrimack men's basketball team to a 95-88 win over the
University of Bridgeport Tuesday afternoon at Volpe Gym.
The Warriors fifth straight win improved their mark to 6-3 on the
year, while the Purple Knights fell to 5-3 overall despite their
4-0 East Coast Conference record.
Along with Davis and all seven Warriors that played, senior
captain Darren Duncan
(Briarwood, NY) scored double figures (16) on Tuesday
afternoon. The Bob Cousy Award nominee also dished out 13
assists—one shy of his career-high—to go with three
steals.
Junior Dee
Mency (Hagerstown, MD) also registered a double-double
with 12 points and 10 boards, falling short of a triple-double by
four assists.
1st
Half
Getting off to a hot start, the Warriors used 7-of-14 shooting
from long range, including 3-of-4 from Davis, to grab as much as a
13-point lead at the 6:08 mark of the first half. The Purple
Knights would fight back with 14 first half points from Kirk
Williams, including 10 in the last seven minutes to make it a
margin of five at the break.
In the first half, Merrimack capitalized on nine Purple Knight
fouls to connect on 13-of-14 free throws, including 8-of-8 from
Duncan. Shooting 13-of-16 from the line for the game Duncan
improved upon his program mark of 591-757 for his career.
2nd
Half
Improving to 6-1 when leading at the half, the Warriors
second-half offense was sparked by a three from Davis less than a
minute into the second frame. Merrimack would stretch the lead to
as much as 13 with two of Jared
Brownlee's (Portland, ME) season-high 12 points
on a baseline jumper, but an ensuing 10-2 run capped off by a Kirk
Williams (20 points) steal and a Dave Boykin's (17 points)
fast break layup cut the lead to four.
Senior Craig Woehnker
(Colts Neck, NJ) would hit one of his three triples to
silence the Purple Knights' run and help push the lead back
to 10 with two minutes to play.
Although the Warriors were outdone on the glass for the eighth
time this season (45-38), Merrimack would improve their
non-conference record to 2-1 with 50% shooting from beyond the arc
(11-of-22) and nine steals, three of which Duncan swiped.
Concluding the 2009 portion of their schedule with a 6-3 mark, the
Warriors resume their Northeast-10 Conference schedule on Saturday,
January 2nd at 3:30pm when they travel to Saint Anselm College to
take on the Hawks in Manchester, New Hampshire.
