#12 Women's Basketball Playoff Run Ends at #4 Bentley
WALTHAM, MA - Despite leading by as much as 18 in the first
half, the No. 12 seed Merrimack women's basketball team was
eliminated from the Northeast-10 Conference quarterfinals Tuesday
evening at the hands of the No. 4 seed Bentley University Falcons,
88-77.
Ending the season 12-17, the Warriors reached the highest win
total since 2004-05.
Leading the Warriors offense, junior Tiffany Colon
(Lawrence, MA) recorded 19 points and 10 boards in 38
minutes of play. Hitting three of Merrimack's eight
three-pointers, Colon scored consistently throughout with 10 in the
first half and nine in the second.
After a back and forth battle for the first 6:30 of play,
freshman Kelly Schatzlein
(Tolland, CT) broke a 9-9 tie with her first two points on
a jumper and one possession later extended the lead to 13-9 on a
layup to beat the shot clock at 12:37.
For the Falcons, junior Kim Brennan paced the home team with
nine of Bentley's first 14 points and a school record 35 points, 18
of which fell in the first half. Brennan, an all-Conference
first teamer, entered Tuesday's game as the third leading scorer in
the league at 16.6 points per game.
Despite being out-rebounded on the offensive glass 6-1 early on,
Merrimack grabbed a 24-19 lead at 8:38 after back-to-back threes
from freshman Katie Ganser (Needham,
MA) at the top of the key.
The Warriors would later grab their largest lead of the half
(37-19) following a 17-0 run fueled by threes from senior
Casey
Miller (Fairbanks, AK), Colon and sophomore Genn Roy (Granby,
MA). In Miller's final game as a Warrior, the senior
extended her school record of made three-pointers to 187. She
also finished her career with 1,240 points, good for 7th
in Merrimack history.
The Falcons went scoreless for 6:02 during the first half until
Elise Caira drove for her first two points at 4:45. With that
layup, Bentley used a 15-7 run to end the half and pull within
eight at the half (44-36).
As a team, Merrimack hit four straight threes during their first
half run as part of 7-of-13 shooting from long range before the
half. The Warriors also hit 57% of their first half shots,
while holding Bentley to 31% shooting (11-of-35).
Merrimack scored the first four points of the second half to
push the lead to 12, but consecutive hoops from Brennan and a three
from Meghan Thomann cut the Merrimack lead to five at 16:30.
After a Miller layup at 9:57 to go up 61-58, Bentley rattled off
8 straight points from the field.
Bentley would extend the lead to 76-69 at 3:25 on an Elise Caira
jumper, but a steal and layup by Miller cut the lead to three at
2:19. That would be the closest Merrimack would come in the
waning moments of Tuesday's quarterfinal game as the Warriors
resorted to fouling and the Falcons converted from the charity
stripe. Two made free throws for Brennan gave her 35 points
in the game and set a new single game scoring record in Bentley
women's basketball.
The loss for Merrimack marked the first time this year that the
Warriors failed to win after leading at the half, dropping to 7-1
in that scenario.
2009-10
Northeast-10 Women's Basketball Quarterfinal Results
#1 Franklin Pierce def. #10 New Haven, 79-68
#3 Stonehill def. #6 Assumption, 73-53
#2 Pace def. #10 American International, 62-46
#4 Bentley def. #12 Merrimack,
88-77
Semfinals - March 5
#1 Franklin Pierce vs. #4 Bentley
#2 Pace vs. #3 Stonehill
