Stellar Shooting Snaps Skid as Men's Hoops Downs New Haven
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.- The Merrimack men's basketball team snapped a five-game skid with an 89-70 victory over New Haven Saturday afternoon at Volpe Gym. The Warriors improved to 10-8 on the season and 6-8 in Northeast-10 action with the win. The Chargers drop to 4-14 overall and 3-12 against league opponents.
Dee Mency (Hagerstown, Md.) scored a game-high 32 for Merrimack, coming up one field goal shy of tying his personal-best. Wayne Mack (Paterson, N.J.) recorded his first double-double of the season with 19 points and a career-high 10 assists. Mency and Mack combined for 10 of the Warriors' 13 three-pointers in the game.
Aaron Strothers (Wareham, Mass.) contributed 12 points while Kevin Regan (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Tyler Young (Brooklyn, N.Y.) each added eight on the day. Wilfredo Pagan (Lawrence, Mass.) dished out a career-high six helpers in the win.
The two teams came out of the gate exchanging points with Merrimack owning an 8-4 lead after 3:50 had gone by.
The Warriors dialed in from downtown, hitting 10 triples in the first frame. Mency drained a trey to push the score to 23-18 in favor of the home team. On the following two possessions, Mack knocked down back-to-back three-pointers from well behind the arc. The two co-captains hit consecutive shots from nearly identical spots behind the three-point line, extending Merrimack's advantage to 18 as it enjoyed a 36-18 lead with eight minutes to play.
Pagan and Regan followed the trend with three-pointers of their own as the Warriors surged ahead 47-28 with 3:20 to go before halftime. Merrimack connected on 10-of-15 from long distance in the first frame. The Warriors shot 48.6% from the floor while the Chargers nearly matched that with a 47.8% field goal shooting after 20 minutes of play.
Mency finished the opening half with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 from deep. Mack contributed 13 points and matched a career-mark with seven assists in the first period. Merrimack held onto a 15-point lead at the break, 49-34.
The Warriors kept the Chargers at bay throughout the second frame. Merrimack maintained a double-digit lead in the second 20 minutes of play.
At the 14:41 mark of the second half, Strothers electrified the crowd with a put-back jam off of a missed three by Mack.
The Warriors' had three consecutive high-energy plays as they posted their largest lead of the day, a 28-point spread to go ahead 79-51. Strothers threw down a monster dunk on a fast break before Mack drained two-straight treys.
Merrimack cruised to its 10th win of the year, downing New Haven 89-70.
"We played well on both ends of the floor today," said head coach Bert Hammel. "We really needed a win today and the crowd was great which I felt helped our energy and intensity."
The Warriors shot 49.3% from the field in the contest while hitting on 48.1% of their three-point attempts. New Haven finished with a field goal percentage of 43.1% and 47.6% shooting from downtown.
Merrimack controlled a 41-32 advantage on the boards in the game. This marks the 10th time this season that the Warriors outrebounded their opponents.
Merrimack remains at home as they get ready to take on local rival Bentley February 2 in a highly-anticipated matchup.
