Women's Basketball Heads to Dowling For Their Last Game of 2011
Game Notes (PDF)
The Particulars:
The Merrimack women's basketball team travels to Oakdale, N.Y. to play thier third non conference game of the young season. Merrimack will be playing in their sixth consecutive road contest on Friday. The Warriors are coming off of an 74-63 loss at the hands of the Southern New Hampshire Penmen. Dowling enters the contest undefeated after downing Pace 70-67 on Sunday. This is the final game of 2011 for the Warriors.
About Merrimack:
The Warriors are led by Kelly Schatzlein who is averaging a team-high 15.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per contest this year. Schatzlein is coming off of her sixth double-double of the year against Southern New Hampshire as she put up 15 points and 15 rebounds in the loss. Genn Roy is second on the team in scoring averaging 15.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per contest. Roy is coming off of an 10 point and two rebound performance on Saturday in the Warriors loss to Southern New Hampshire.The freshman guard duo of Chloe Rothman and Allison Wagner have performed well so far with Rothman averaging 7.7 points and 4.3 assists and Wagner averaging 6.2 points. Jaclyn Lyons is averaging a team-high 7.1 points a game off the bench.
About The Competition:
The Golden Lions enter Friday's contest with a 7-0 record after winning their last contest at Pace 70-67. Dowling is led offensively by Connie Simmons who is averaging 13.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Christine Verrelle is averaging 11.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game so far this season. Julia Koppl is contributing with 10.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game this season while missing one game. The Golden Lions have played two Northeast-10 conference schools so far this season and have won both contests.
All-Time Series:
The Warriors are 3-1 all-time against Dowling. Merrimack won the first three contests between the two teams but was defeated in their last matchup by the score of 95-86.
Last game (Merrimack 63 - Southern New Hampshire 74):
The Merrimack women's basketball team traveled to Southern New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon for a conference showdown with the Penmen. Merrimack was downed by the Penmen 74-63. Kelly Schatzlein led the way for the Warriors as she recorded her sixth double-double, racking up 15 points and 15 rebounds in the loss. Chloe Rothman led all scorers and scored a career-high 19 points for the Warriors on 8-11 from the field. Rothman also chipped in with five rebounds and five assists in the loss. Genn Roy rounded out the three Warriors in double figures with 10 points and one steal.
1,164 and counting:
Senior guard Gennifer Roy put together another steady performance on Saturday as she scored 10 points on 5-15 from the field. With her performance on Saturday, Roy moved into 10th place on the all-time scoring list with 1,164 career points. Roy is just four points shy of ninth place on the Merrimack womens basketball scoring charts. The senior has led the team in scoring five times this season. Roy is averaging 15.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game this year.
Schatzlein Racks up sixth double-double of the season:
Junior forward Kelly Schatzlein had another great game for Merrimack on Saturday afternoon in the Warriors 74-63 loss. Schatzlein finished the game with 15 points on 4-10 from the field and 7-12 from the free throw line to go along with 15 rebounds and one block. Schatzlein is second in the conference in rebounds with 11.1 per contest and third in the conference in field goal percentage, shooting 58.6 percent. Schatzlein is now averaging a double-double with 15.9 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per contest. Schatzlein has racked up a team-high six double-doubles through nine games this year and has led the team in rebounding in all nine games.
Bench points and points off turnovers key to warriors loss:
One of the biggest problems for the Warriors team all year has been turning the ball over as Merrimack has turned the ball over more than their opponents in every game this year. The Warriors were unable to fix that problem on Saturday afternoon either as they committed 25 turnovers that led to 28 Penmen points on the afternoon. Southern New Hampshire outscored Merrimack 28-15 on points off turnovers for the game. Another key in the loss on Saturday was preventing the bench from having an impact. The Penmen racked up 29 bench points compared to six by the Warriors.
Equal scoring across the board not enough:
The Warriors had seven players score atleast two points on Saturday and three players in double figures. Chloe Rothman scored a career-high 19 points while Kelly Schatzlein racked up 15 points and Genn Roy chipped in with 10 points. Katie Ganser had seven points while Allison Wagner had six points on two three pointers.
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.
