Women's Hoops Suffers Setback Against No. 17 Bentley
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.- The Merrimack women's basketball team fell 67-48 to No. 17 Bentley at the Volpe Gym Thursday evening. The Warriors drop to 9-10 on the season and 7-8 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Falcons improve to 17-3 overall with a 14-2 mark in league play.
Kelly Schatzlein (Tolland, Conn.) recorded her third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Gennifer Roy (Granby, Mass.) contributed 11 points while Tiffany Colon (Lawrence, Mass.) finished with six points and nine boards.
Merrimack faced a 12-2 deficit after four minutes of play. Schatzlein broke a scoring drought with a layup with 12 minutes remaining in the opening period.
The Warriors found themselves behind 40-19 at the half. Schatzlein led Merrimack at the break with nine. Colon and Roy each added four in the first 20 minutes of action.
The home squad rattled off an 8-2 run to make the score 42-27 five minutes into the second half. An 11-2 run by Bentley pushed the margin to 58-33 with under eight minutes to go.
Shelby LaBarge (St. Albans, Vt.) added a spark off the bench as the rookie sank her first career field goal on her first attempt of the night at the 4:35 mark of the second frame.
Valerie Avebe (Yaounde, Cameroon) added five points off the bench for the Warriors.
The Falcons controlled the ball for the remainder of the game en route to their 17th win of the year.
Jacqui Brugliera led the visitors with 20 points and 13 rebounds in the game.
Merrimack shot 31% from the floor in the game while Bentley connected on 44.3% of its field goal attempts.
The Falcons edged the Warriors on the boards, owning a 42-40 advantage on the night.
The Warriors return to action February 5 as they travel to Manchester, N.H. to take on Saint Anselm.
