Women's Basketball Heads to Stonehill for Their First Conference Road Test of the Season
Complete Game Notes (pdf)
THE PARTICULARS: The Merrimack women's basketball team heads to Stonehill to play the Skyhawks in their first conference road game of the young season. The Warriors are coming off of an 87-58 loss at the hands of the #2 Bentley Falcons while Stonehill is coming off of 81-67 loss to Franklin Pierce.
ABOUT MERRIMACK: The Warriors are led by Kelly Schatzlein who is averaging 14.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest. Schatzlein is coming off of a 14 point and three rebound performance against Bentley. Genn Roy is the teams second leading scorer at 14.0 points and 3.5 rebounds per contest.The freshman guard duo of Chloe Rothman and Allison Wagner are each averaging 8.3 points per contest .Rothman is shooting an amazing 55 percent from the field and 63 percent from deep.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION: The Skyhawks enter Sunday's contest with a 3-2 (0-2 NE-10) record after dropping thier last contest to Franklin Pierce. The Skyhawks are led offensively by Mary Louise Dixon who is averaging 13.6 points per contest to go along with 7.8 rebounds per game and 5.2 assists per game. Asia Ewing leads the team on the glass recording 8.2 boards per game and 9.8 points per game.
ALL-TIME SERIES: The Warriors are 9-59 all-time against the Stonehill Skyhawks including splitting the two game series last season, with the home team winning each game.
1,078 AND COUNTING: Senior guard Gennifer Roy had a quiet night offensively against the #2 Bentley Falcons as she scored four points. Despite her showing on Tuesday Roy has led the Warriors in scoring in three of the four games this season. Her 1,078 career points moves her into 14th place on the all-time scoring list, just three points shy of 13th place.
SCHATZLEIN CONTINUES STRONG PLAY ON OFFENSIVE END OF THE COURT: Junior forward Kelly Schatzlein put together another solid outing in Merrimacks 87-58 loss to Bentley. Schatzlein scored 14 points, hauled in 3 rebounds, one steal in just 22 minutes of action because of early foul trouble. Schatzlein was 6-8 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line improving her field goal percentage to 60 percent on the season. Schatzlein is averaging a team-high 14.3 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per contest through four games.
FRESHMAN EFFECTIVE FROM BEHIND THE ARC: The Warriors are shooting 34.4 percent from behind the arc on the season and they are holding their opponents to 33.3 percent. Allison Wagner leads all Warriors with eight deep balls on the season while Gennifer Roy has hit four and Chloe Rothman has racked up five. The Warriors were 7-21 from behind the arc Tuesday in their loss to Bentley. Rothman was outstanding from deep as she was 3-4 including 3-3 in the second half while Wagner was 3-8 from deep range on the night. Katie Ganser added one deep ball for the Warriors.
NEWCOMERS MAKE EARLY IMPACT ONCE AGAIN: The Warriors received good play from their newcomers in Tuesdays 87-58 loss to the #2 Bentley Falcons as many freshman set career highs in multiple categories. Cassi Amenta led all bench players for the Warriors with eight points in a career-high 17 minutes of action. Amenta went 6-8 from the line and 1-3 from the field in her best outing as a Warrior. Chloe Rothman racked up a career-high 11 points, all in the second half, on 4-7 from the field and 3-4 from deep, including 3-3 from deep in the second half. Angie Michalski also had a career game for the Warriors as she racked up 14 minutes of action against the #2 team in the country. Michalski was 1-3 from the field and 1-2 from the line to give her three points off the bench to go along with two rebounds, including one offensive board. Jaclyn Lyons earned her first-career start after her 16 point outing against Bridgeport but she was unable to get it going offensively as she was limited to 1-3 from the field for two points, two rebounds and one assist for the Warriors. Allison Wagner continued her hot shooting from behind the arc for Merrimack as she sunk a team-high three deep balls.
POINTS IN THE PAINT ANOTHER KEY FACTOR: The Warriors were dominated in the paint on Tuesday night against the #2 Bentley Falcons. The Warriors were outscored 40-20 in the paint, one of many factors in the Warriors loss to the Falcons. Bentley was dominating in the paint during the first 20 minutes of action as they outscored Merrimack 22-10 including 12 points by forward Lauren Battista all in the paint. The Warriors held their own in the second half as Kelly Schatzlein finished with 14 points including 12 in the paint. The second half points in the paint were 18-10 in favor of Bentley.
MERRIMACK'S NEW HEAD COACH MONIQUE LEBLANC: Monique LeBlanc is enterng her first season as head coach of the Merrimack Warriors. LeBlanc brings over seven years of division I coaching experience to North Andover. LeBlanc spent the last three seasons as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northern Arizona University. LeBlanc also served as the teams academic mentor, Northern Arizona had a team GPA of 3.4 in 2010, which ranked 13th among all division I women's basketball programs. LeBlanc also spent three seasons as an assistant coach at her alma mater Bucknell where her team captured the Patriot league title in 2007 and 2008 and earned a NCAA Tournament Berth in 2008. LeBlanc was a two year captain of the Bisons as a player. She led her team to its first-ever Patriot League Championship and NCAA Tournament berth, while compiling back-to-back 20-win seasons.
