Men's Basketball Drops 74-63 Decision to Bentley
NORTH ANDOVER, MA- The Merrimack men's basketball team suffered a 74-63 loss to Bentley Tuesday evening at Bert Hammel Court. The Warriors drop to 4-2 on the season and 1-1 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Falcons improve to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in league play with the victory.
Aaron Strothers (Wareham, MA) led Merrimack with 18 points while adding eight boards and two assists. Roland Davis (Deer Park, NY) contributed 17 points, five assists and four rebounds. Mike Clifford (Danvers, MA) posted his first double-double in a Warrior uniform, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 boards. Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) added 11 points, seven rebounds and four helpers for Merrimack.
A pair of lay-ups by Clifford opened the scoring, giving the hosts a 4-0 lead early on. After Bentley's Greg Jacques knocked down a triple, Davis responded with a trey on the Warriors' ensuing possession.
Merrimack claimed a seven-point advantage eight minutes into the contest on a jumper from Clifford.
The Warriors held onto a 20-16 edge midway through the first period. The two teams battled evenly throughout the opening frame.
The Falcons grabbed their first lead of the night on a lay-up from Andrew Shaw to give them a 27-26 gap with 2:41 left to play.
A trio of free throws from Jasper Grassa extended the visitors' advantage to four points. Strothers sank a mid-range jumper to pull Merrimack to within two with a minute remaining in the first half.
Merrimack trailed by just two points at the half, 30-28. The Falcons held the ball for the final shot of the opening frame but Kevin Regan (Philadelphia, PA) came up with a block to keep the margin minimal.
Clifford paced the Warriors with eight first-half points and seven rebounds. Davis and Strothers each contributed six points in the first 20 minutes.
Merrimack shot 32.4% from the floor while Bentley owned a 33.3 field goal percentage at the break.
The two squads traded buckets coming out of halftime before Davis drained a three-pointer to tie the game for the first time at 35-35.
A lay-up by Strothers gave the Warriors their first lead of the second stanza at 37-35 with 15:37 left to play.
Merrimack knotted the score at 48-48 with 11:45 remaining in regulation on another triple from Davis.
The Falcons scored nine unanswered points to go ahead 57-48 halfway through the second period.
The Warriors cut the deficit to three points with 5:39 left to go as Davis' fifth three of the game pulled the score to 64-61.
After a free throw restored Bentley's lead to four, Strothers layed in his 18th point of the night to slice the visitor's advantage to two with under five minutes remaining in the contest.
The Falcons closed out the game with a 9-0 run to secure their first conference win of the season.
Merrimack shot 45.2% in the second half to finish with a 38.2 field goal percentage. The Warriors drained 5-of-8 attempts from behind the arc in the final period.
Bentley boasted a 41.9 field goal percentage at the conclusion of the game. The hosts held a 43-40 edge on the Falcons in rebounding on the night.
Merrimack takes to the road as it travels to Stonehill November 27 for a 3:30 pm tip-off.
