Mency's 34 Stuns Saint Anselm in Merrimack's Sixth Straight Win
MANCHESTER, NH - With seven three-pointers and a career-high 34
points in the game, junior Dee Mency (Hagerstown,
MD) led the Merrimack men's basketball team to a 78-76 win
over Saint Anselm College on Saturday afternoon in Manchester.
"We still have some work to do on the defensive end, but Dee hit
some big shots in crunch time," head coach Bert
Hammel said following his team's win to kick off the New
Year. "We are fortunate to have that kind of offense, but our
rebounding needs to improve if we are to reach our goals by the end
of the season."
The Warriors sixth straight win improved their record to 7-3
(5-2 NE-10), while Saint Anselm dropped to 7-5 (3-4 NE-10) on the
year.
Sophomore Aaron Strothers
(Wareham, MA) had a career day of his own with 17 points
on 8-of-12 shooting to add to his league-leading 72% shooting from
the field.
1st
Half
Including a pair of threes, Mency kick-started the Merrimack
offense with eight of the Warriors first 10 points. The
Hawks' Pat Luptowski would connect on two threes of his own to keep
the Warriors at arm's length, layup and fast break dunk
from Strothers built the early lead to seven (16-9).
After Saint Anselm pulled ahead 17-16 at the midway point of the
first half, sophomore Wayne Mack (Paterson,
NJ) ended a four minute drought for the Warriors with a
floater in the lane to regain the lead.
While the two teams traded leads in the early going (five lead
changes in the half), Strothers would score two of his 12 first
half points on a dish from Mency at 6:16 to give Merrimack the lead
(27-26) momentarily.
Saint Anselm would own the lead for the final five minutes of
the first half and took a 34-33 lead into the locker room at the
break following a layup from Strothers with 15 seconds
remaining. Continuing their rebounding woes, the Warriors
were beaten on the glass 26-14, including nine offensive rebounds,
in the first half.
2nd
Half
Coming out of the gates firing, Merrimack started the second
half on an 8-2 run, including five from Strothers.
Similar to the first half, Luptowski of Saint Anselm would nail
consecutive threes to pull the Hawks within three (47-44) five
minutes into the half.
In the ensuing minutes, Greg Vetrano would make a pair of threes
of his own to pull Saint Anselm within one (53-52), but a steal and
lay-in from Mency forced the Hawks to call time at the 10:40
mark. Merrimack would push the lead to six on a three from
Mency and a pair of free throws from Duncan.
Saint Anselm grabbed a lead on a John Mariano three-point play
at the 7:11 mark, despite a jumper in the lane from Mency to tie it
at 62.
Trailing by eight (71-63) at the 2:45 mark, Mency put the
Warriors on his back with three straight from long range, including
a four-point play at the 1:45 mark. His final three tied the
game at 73 with one minute to play in the contest. Mency
would reach his career-mark of 34 points with his fifth three of
the half with 45 ticks remaining.
After Duncan fouled out with 25 seconds remaining, Thomas
Baudinet (team-high 19) hit 1-of-2 from the line to tie the score,
76-76.
With 5.2 seconds remaining, Mack drained a pair of free throws
to ice the come-from-behind win and sixth straight for Merrimack.
The win over the Hawks extends the Warriors series streak to
four over the past four seasons.
Merrimack returns to action on Wednesday at American
International College at 7:30pm in Springfield,
Massachusetts. The Yellow Jackets were in non-conference
action against Post University Saturday afternoon at home with a
43-34 deficit at the halftime break.
