Men's Basketball Bounced from Conference Tourney by Lowell, 80-70
NORTH ANDOVER, MA - In front of a capacity crowd (1,124) at
Volpe Gym Thursday evening, the men's basketball team fell to the
University of Massachuetts-Lowell in the Conference semifinals,
80-70.
With the win, Lowell will host the Northeast-10 Championship on
Saturday, March 6 against No. 9-seed Adelphi University who upset
No. 5-seed Saint Anselm on Thursday, 78-66 in Manchester, New
Hampshire.
Finishing Conference tournament play at 20-8, the Warriors await
the NCAA selection show on Sunday evening at 9:30pm to see if they
will play as one of eight teams in the East Regional. In the
most recent regional poll, the Warriors were ranked fourth behind
Stonehill, Bentley and Philadelphia University. Lowell was
not among the top ten in the poll when it was released this past
week.
The highlight of Thursday night for Merrimack was senior captain
Darren
Duncan's (Briarwood, NY) elevation into the top three
scorers in Merrimack history and fourth ever Warrior to score 2,000
career points. With a team-high 28 points, Duncan ends the
Northeast-10 season with 2,027 points, passing Gary Duda '92
(2,008).
In the first half, the teams went back and forth until senior
Jeff
Hansbury (Plaistow, NH) hit a three at 13:08 to give
Merrimack their largest (17-14) lead before the River Hawks went on
a 19-2 run over the next five minutes.
Shooting 9-of-25 in the first half, Merrimack hit only two
threes (on nine attempts) to Lowell's five-four of which came from
Kevin Carr. Fifty-nine percent first half shooting from the
River Hawks built a 46-34 lead going into the locker room.
Coming out firing in the second half, Lowell's all-Conference
sophomore Kyle Caiola buried three of his career-high 32 points
seconds into the second stanza. Scoring 32 for the fourth
time in his two years, Caiola shot 11-of-20 from the field and
7-of-8 from the line.
On a Duncan layup at 12:40, the Warriors pulled to within seven
(59-52), but Caiola hit another three and Merrimack would not come
within single digits again.
For the Warriors, junior Dee Mency (Hagerstown,
MD) scored 17 points and sophomore Aaron Strothers
(Wareham, MA) scored 10, but as a team Merrimack shot 34%
from the field and 21% from three-point range.
The overriding theme for the evening, though, was the dominant
play of Lowell's Ali Kanaan on the glass at both ends of the
court. With 16 points, Kanaan also pulled down 15 boards
(seven offensive) and swatted three shots.
