Early Lead Not Enough for Men's Basketball Against #25 Stonehill
NORTH ANDOVER, MA - Despite four Warriors in double digits, the
Merrimack men's basketball team dropped their third straight
contest Tuesday to the Northeast-10's top-seeded and #25 Stonehill
College at Volpe Gym, 74-66.
Sophomore Roland Davis (Deer
Park, NY) and Wayne Mack (Paterson,
NJ) each scored 19 points to lead all scorers, but 17
Skyhawk bench points to Merrimack's zero made the difference down
the stretch.
With the loss, Merrimack drops into a tie with UMass-Lowell at
12-6 in the Conference, with a matchup in Lowell this upcoming
Saturday at 4:00pm. The Warriors are now 14-7 overall after
their first three-game losing skid since a three-game stretch
spanning January and February of 2009.
The Warriors were sailing smoothly in the opening minutes as
they grabbed an early 14-2 lead, including Davis scoring the last
five of that run. Merrimack would maintain the lead 8:06 into
the second half, but a Brian Hamor three-pointer gave the Skyhawks
their first lead of the game.
In the first half, Merrimack would lead by as much as 16 on a
lay-in from Mack, but 37% shooting in the game could not match up
to 52% shooting from Stonehill. Merrimack also continued
their struggles from long range, connecting on 6-of-23 beyond the
arc.
Merrimack's last lead on Tuesday came with 6:05 on the clock
after a pair of free throws from senior Darren Duncan
(Briarwood, NY), but an ensuing 14-5 run by the Skyhawks
closed out the road win for the visitors. Duncan scored just
10 points on the night as the senior shot 4-of-12 from the field
and was blanked from long range (0-of-4).
For Stonehill, AJ Rudowitz scored just 13 points on 4-of-11
shooting, but his 11 boards contributed to the 39-34 rebounding
advantage for the Skyhawks.
On the year, Merrimack falls to 12-7 when being out-rebounded
and 1-6 when scoring fewer than 70 points.
