Saint Anselm Silences Warrior Offense in Men's Basketball Second Straight Loss
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – With their
first two-game losing skid since the first two games of the season,
the Merrimack men’s basketball team dropped their second in a
row Saturday afternoon to Saint Anselm College, 64-61.
Despite a resurgent Dee Mency (Hagerstown,
MD) in the form of a team-high 19 points, the Warriors
tallied their fourth lowest output of the year on the offensive
end. Mency had been limited over the last five games due to an
ankle injury.
Saint Anselm’s Thomas Baudinet scored a game-high 22 points
on 9-of-17 shooting from the field to pull the Hawks within one
game of Merrimack at 11-6 (15-7 overall) in Conference play.
Merrimack fell to 14-6 (12-5 NE-10) after being out-rebounded
45-37 by the visitors.
“Our offense just isn’t in rhythm,” said head
coach Bert Hammel following the contest. “The numbers show
that we are struggling from the field, but when we do the little
things that should enable our offense to get going.”
The first half was a game of runs that saw the Warriors jump out
to a 10-3 lead, only to surrender a 12-0 run over the next five
minutes. Merrimack would against take a six point lead at 22-16
before giving up seven unanswered to end the half with the Hawks up
23-22.
For Merrimack, all five starters scored and registered a steal in
a first half that the Warriors scored 10 points in the paint and as
many off turnovers. Sophomore Roland Davis (Deer Park, NY) led the
first half scoring for Merrimack with eight points as the home team
shot just 29% from the field and 9% from three-point range
(1-of-11). Saint Anselm was not much better, connecting on three
three-pointers and 8-of-29 from the field.
For the Hawks, Pat Luptowski matched Davis’ game-high eight
points at the break with two of Saint Anselm’s three
triples.
In the second half, Merrimack jumped out to as much as a five
point lead 3:15 in on a pull-up jumper from sophomore point guard
Wayne
Mack (Paterson, NJ) in transition. On the afternoon,
Mack scored eight points, grabbed eight boards, dished four assists
and nabbing four steals while not turning the ball over once.
Saint Anselm would take the lead for good at the 8:45 mark, but a
three from Mency with 36 ticks remaining cut the Hawks lead to two.
Mency would have another shot from deep to take the lead at 0:17,
but an off-balance attempt clanged off the back iron and into the
outstretched arms of Hakeem Williams who was fouled and hit one of
two from the line. Senior Darren Duncan
(Briarwood, NY) attempt to push the floor for a
last-second heave, but the ball rolled out of his hands as time
expired.
Duncan scored 14 points and dished seven assists, but 4-of-15
shooting from the captain contributed to 35% Merrimack shooting and
a tough offensive night in North Andover.
The Warriors return to action at home when they host the
Northeast-10 Conference’s top seed, Stonehill College at the
Volpe Gym on Tuesday at 7:30pm.
Courtesy of Pack Network and Northeast10.tv
