Hot Shooting Falcons Down Merrimack, 87-58
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack Warriors women's basketball team was downed by the #2 Bentley Falcons on Tuesday night by the score of 87-58 at Bert Hammel Court. The Falcons shot over 57 percent from the field to drop the Warriors to 1-3 (0-2 NE-10) on the young season.
Kelly Schatzlein (Tolland, CT) led all Warriors with 14 points on 6-8 from the field and three rebounds.
"We definitely were intimidated out there tonight from the start," said head coach Monique LeBlanc. "We allowed Bentley to build a lead early on and it's tough to dig yourself out of a huge deficit against one of the top teams in the country."
The Warriors started out the game falling behind from the start as with 10:30 remaining in the opening half the Falcons built an 20-3 advantage after a Shatasia Kearse layup off of a Kelsey Roberson pass.
The Warriors put together an 8-0 run with 4:10 remaining in the opening half after back-to-back three-pointers by freshman Allison Wagner (Center Conway, NH), to bring the score to 31-17 Bentley. The two deep balls by Wagner caused a Bentley timeout.
The Falcons continued their hot start as they increased their lead to 21 after a Meghan Thomann trey ball with 1:16 left on the clock. Merrimack responded with a great layup by Shatzlein after a no look pass by Chloe Rothman (Newton, Mass.) led her straight to the cup for the finish to cut the deficit to 19.
The Falcons went into the half with a 24 point lead as Katherine Goodwin drilled a three pointer as the first half buzzer sounded, making the score 47-23 Bentley at half. The Falcons were led by Lauren Battista in the first half with 12 points on 6-10 from the field.
The Warriors were held to 33 percent shooting in the first half despite Shatzlein going a perfect 5-5 from the field and finishing with 10 points. Wagner closed out the first half with six points on 2-5 from deep. The Falcons shot an astounding 19-32 from the field in the first half including 5-7 from the three-point line.
The second half started with either team trading baskets. The Bentley lead was cut to 18 with 18:28 remaining in the game after another Wagner three pointer from the corner assisted by Katie Ganser (Needham, mass.). This would be the closest the Warriors would come in the second half as they could not contain the great shooting of the Falcons.
Late in the second half Rothman drained back-to-back three pointers to cut the Bentley lead to 23. Rothman took over the second half for the Warriors as she was 4-5 from the field including 3-3 from deep for 11 points, after not scoring in the opening half.
The Falcons closed out the game on an 8-1 run to give them the 87-58 victory on Tuesday night.
The Warriors were led on the night by Schatzlein with 14 points and three rebounds. Wagner finished with 13 points, three boards, two assists and two swipes for the Warriors. Rothman finished with 11 second half points to go along with three assists and three steals. Cassi Amenta (Lynn, Mass.) came off the bench for the Warriors and scored a career-high 8 points on 1-3 from the field and 6-8 from the line in 17 minutes of action.
Battista finished the game with a team-high 16 points and three boards for the Visiting Falcons. Jacqui Brugliera closed out the contest with 12 points and three rebounds on 8-11 from the line. Roberson also broke double digits with 10 points, six boards and four assists for the Falcons.
Merrimack (1-3, 0-2) will hit the road for their first road game of the young season as they will face conference foe Stonehill at 1:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.
