Buzzer-Beater Sinks Men's Basketball
NEW HAVEN, Conn.- The Merrimack men's basketball team dropped a 68-66 decision on the road to Southern Connecticut State Tuesday evening at the Morse Field House. The Warriors sink to 9-8 overall and 5-8 against Northeast-10 opponents. The Owls lift their record to 10-8 on the season and 7-7 in the league.
Darin Mency (Hagerstown, Md.) paced Merrimack with 26 points and seven boards on the night. Tyler Young (Brooklyn, N.Y.) posted his fifth double-double in the month of January with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Aaron Strothers (Wareham, Mass.) finished with nine points while Wilfredo Pagan (Lawrence, Mass.) added six.
Merrimack gained a 6-2 lead on the home side in the opening minutes.
No team was able to obtain a sizeable advantage in the first period. The largest lead of the half was five which Southern Connecticut was able to reach on three occasions.
Merrimack trailed at the half by five points, 32-27. Young concluded the first half with 11 points to his credit. Mency added eight points through 20 minutes of action.
The Warriors drew to within three points of the Owls with five minutes gone by in the second frame, 38-35. After a steal on the defensive end, Juan Carlos Rosich (San Jose, Costa Rica) tipped in a missed field goal by Pagan to cut the deficit to one, 38-37.
Southern Connecticut lengthened its lead to 14, 55-41, after going on a 15-4 run.
Mency stopped the run by burying a three from the left wing to slice the Owls' margin to 11, 55-44.
A 6-2 streak put Merrimack behind by just seven 57-50 with under six minutes remaining in the game.
The Warriors had the Owls in their sights as they clawed back into the game. Mency knocked down a jumper with 3:15 on the clock to pull Merrimack to within three, 62-59.
Following a layup by Southern Connecticut, Mency drained a trey on the next trip down the court inching the Warriors closer to the Owls, 64-62.
Strothers layed in the tying points with 1:30 left to play in regulation, evening the score at 64-64.
Chazz McCarter put the home team back up by a two with 1:13 to go, 66-64.
A free throw by Strothers made it a one-point game, 66-65. The Warriors came up with a defensive stop, forcing a shot clock violation to keep it a one-point spread heading down the stretch.
Mency drove hard to the rim as the clock ticked down and earned himself a trip to the free throw line with 2.9 seconds remaining. The senior hit one free throw to level the score at 66-66.
Greg Langston took the inbound pass and threw up a floater from the top of the key as time expired. As the horn sounded, the ball went through the hoop to give Southern Connecticut the last-second victory.
The Warriors shot 49% from the field and 46.2% from downtown in the game. The Owls connected on 38.3% of their field goal attempts while knocking down 35% of their attempts from behind the arc.
Merrimack owned a 37-29 advantage in the rebounding department.
"I thought that our guys did a great job of fighting back in the game," said head coach Bert Hammel. "Its always a tough loss to endure when its this close never mind a buzzer beater."
Five days after traveling to New Haven, Conn., Merrimack will host the University of New Haven at Volpe Gym January 29.
