Men's Basketball Slams Saint Michael's 94-77, Clinches #3 Seed
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – A career-best 24 points from sophomore
Roland
Davis (Deer Park, NY) propelled the Merrimack
men's basketball team over Saint Michael's College
Saturday afternoon at Volpe Gym, 94-77.
On the afternoon, senior captain Darren Duncan
(Briarwood, NY) crept ever closer to the 2,000-point
plateau with 21 points, while also moving into eighth place
all-time in Division II assist leaders with seven on the night and
788 in his career.
Sophomore Aaron Strothers
(Wareham, MA) was one of five Warriors in double figures,
tallying 14 points, seven boards and for the fourth time in his
career swatted five shots.
With the win, Merrimack improved to 17-7 (15-6 NE-10) on the year
and wrapped up a first round bye in the upcoming Conference
play-offs which will begin on Monday, March 1 for Merrimack when
they face the winner of the #6/#11 play-in game.
“It was nice that we were able to secure third place with
win this afternoon,” said head coach Bert Hammel.
“I thought our defense was poor in the first half, but we
picked it up in the second half. Whenever you can score 94 points
like we did, your offense is working pretty well. All in all,
though, any win at this time of year is a good win.”
In the first three minutes of the game, junior Dee Mency (Hagerstown,
MD) took over with four straight field goals, including
three from beyond the arc. His marksmanship gave Merrimack an early
25-14 lead, but hot shooting from Saint Michael's tied the
game at 31 with 3:42. Mency finished the afternoon with 14 points
and seven boards in 32 minutes.
The Purple Knights' freshman Travis Warech led all scorers
in the first half with 20 points, but an 8-2 Merrimack run to end
the half made the halftime score 48-40. Warech finished with 26
points, nine boards and five points.
The Warriors' first half defense snagged eight steals and
forced 13 Saint Michael's turnovers. Along with 10 points and
six assists, Duncan racked up four steals in the first frame.
Over a 45 second span in the second half, Davis buried two
three-pointers to give Merrimack their largest lead of the game
(21) at the 3:34 mark.
For only the fifth time this season and second straight game,
Merrimack's bench outscored the opposition and tallied 28
points, largely because of Davis.
In the game, Merrimack scored 25 points off 19 Purple Knight
turnovers in comparison to just nine points off eight turnovers for
the visitors.
The Warriors return to action on Monday, February 22 when they
face New Haven in a non-Conference game in West Haven, Connecticut
at 7:00pm. Merrimack concludes the regular season against Southern
New Hampshire on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30pm on 'Senior
Night'.
Northeast-10 Conference
Standings
School NE-10 Overall
1. Stonehill 19-2 22-4
2. Bentley 17-4 22-4
3. Merrimack 15-6 17-7
4. Le Moyne 13-8 17-9
5. Saint Anselm 13-8 17-9
6. Saint Rose 12-8 15-10
7. UMass Lowell 12-9 15-11
8. Adelphi 11-10 18-10
9. American Int'l 11-10 13-13
10. So. New Hampshire 9-12 14-12
11. Assumption 9-12 12-14
12. Pace 8-12
10-15
13. Franklin Pierce 7-14 12-14
14. Saint Michael's 5-16 9-16
15. New Haven 4-16 4-20
16. So. Connecticut 1-19 2-23
