Men's Basketball Bands Together to Rise Above Stonehill
Postgame Interviews: Mack / Strothers
NORTH EASTON, Mass.- The Merrimack men's basketball team captured a 54-50 victory over Stonehill Tuesday evening at Merkert Gymnasium. The Warriors improve to 11-10 overall and 7-10 in the Northeast-10 with the win. The Skyhawks dive to 18-5 on the year and 13-5 in conference play.
Aaron Strothers (Wareham, Mass.) paced Merrimack with 15 points on the night. Tyler Young (Brooklyn, N.Y.) finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in the game. Wayne Mack (Paterson, N.J.) contributed 14 points in the win. Dee Mency (Hagerstown, Md.) added seven points and seven rebounds.
Stonehill gained a quick 9-3 advantage in the opening minutes of the contest.
Aaron Strothers broke a two-minute scoring drought between the two teams with a layup at the 12:20 mark of the first half, bringing the Warriors to within four, 9-5. The junior sank a jumper to cut the deficit to one bucket on the next trip down the court.
Strothers drained a layup and got fouled in the process. After he made the resulting free throw, Merrimack trailed by just one point with just under nine minutes left to play in the opening period.
The Warriors claimed their first lead of the night 13 minutes into the contest, 16-15. Wilfredo Pagan (Lawrence, Mass.) set up Strothers for an easy layup and his 11th points of the game.
A turn-around jumper by Mency and a fast-break layup by Mack, extended Merrimack's advantage to five, 20-15, with five minutes remaining in the half. The Warriors rattled off two more points to for an 11-0 run to forge ahead 22-15.
The Warriors came up with key defensive stops in the waning minutes of the first frame. Young rejected a pair of shots, including a layup on a three-on-one for the Skyhawks.
Pagan created easy buckets for Young and Strothers with pinpoint entry passes. Merrimack held onto a 24-15 edge with 2:30 left to play until halftime.
The visitors sported a 27-19 lead at the break. Strothers led the Warriors with 13 first half points while adding a pair of rebounds. Young grabbed a game-high six boards in the opening 20 minutes while Pagan finished with four helpers.
Collectively, Merrimack shot 41% from the field while limiting Stonehill to 26% shooting from the floor in the first stanza.
Strothers carried his superb first-half performance into the second half. He made his seventh field goal in as many attempts on the first possession of the period.
The Warriors ran their lead to 13 as Mack netted a jumper between two defenders.
The Skyhawks scored eight unanswered points to slice the margin to two with under three minutes remaining in regulation.
With a two-point lead in hand, Mack sank six points in a row to push Merrimack's advantage to eight points heading into the final minute of the game.
Patrick Lee banked in a three-pointer with 27 ticks on the clock to shorten the visitors' lead to five, 52-47. Brian Hamor drained a triple in the final 20 seconds shortening Stonehill's deficit to two.
The Warriors held on to claim their 11th win of the year and sweep the season series against Stonehill.
The two teams battled evenly on the boards with each squad grabbing 41.
"Our guys showed their true character tonight. They were determined to win that game and they gave everything they had," said head coach Bert Hammel. "Tonight's win was a great way to rebound from a tough loss last time out."
Merrimack shot 38% from the floor in the game while holding the Skyhawks to 29% shooting from the field.
Merrimack will play its third-straight road game as it travels to Colchester, Vt. to take on Saint Michael's February 10.
