Men's Basketball Falls at Pace, 77-73
PLEASANTVILLE, NY – With the absence of Dee Mency (Hagerstown,
MD), the Merrimack men's basketball team lost for
the first time in two months this season at Pace University on
Saturday afternoon, 77-73.
Before the loss, Merrimack had won 11 consecutive regular season
games—the most in head coach Bert Hammel's
30 year career. The Warriors were also 5-1 in Conference play on
the road before Saturday afternoon.
Merrimack drops to 12-4 (9-3 NE-10) on the year after shooting 53%
from the line to lose their first contest to Pace since
2007-08.
Senior captain Darren Duncan
(Briarwood, NY) led the way for Merrimack with 19 points
and 10 boards in 40 minutes, while classmate Craig Woehnker
(Colts Neck, NJ) and sophomore Wayne Mack (Paterson,
NJ) tallied 12 points.
The Warriors led by one as late as 4:09 to play, but a layup for
Delroy Daley (16 points) gave the Setters the lead for good to snap
the team's five-game losing streak. Daley also hauled in 14
boards, while Ryan Woods grabbed 13 of his own in a game Merrimack
was outdone on the glass by 11.
Merrimack led in the game by as much as nine with 6:38 to play on
a one of two three-pointers from senior Jeff Hansbury
(Plaistow, NH), but an ensuing 18-2 run by the home team
led a free throw contest that favored the Setters.
Pace also used a 26-8 second half scoring in the paint advantage
to improve to 8-10 (6-7 NE-10) on the year.
With a win from Bentley over Le Moyne on Saturday afternoon in
Syracuse, Merrimack falls out of a second place tie and in sole
possession of third place in the Northeast-10 ahead of
UMass-Lowell.
The Warriors return home on Tuesday, January 26 when they host
Southern Connecticut State University at 7:30pm following the
women's contest against the Owls at 5:30pm.
