Men's Basketball Endures 81-63 Setback at Le Moyne
SYRACUSE, NY- The Merrimack men's basketball team suffered an 81-63 loss at Le Moyne Wednesday evening. With the loss, the Warriors sink to 7-7 on the year and 4-6 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Dolphins improve to 8-6 overall and 4-6 in league play with the win.
Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) led Merrimack with 16 points on the night to eclipse 1,200 career points. Tyler Young (Brooklyn, NY) finished with 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field while Aaron Strothers (Wareham, MA) poured in 13. Mike Clifford (Danvers, MA) paced the Warriors on the boards with 10 rebounds to go along with eight points.
In the opening 5:21, the hosts drained three baskets from downtown and added a layup to grab a quick 11-4 advantage.
Just past the midway point of the first half, Merrimack cut the deficit to two points as Mack knocked down a trey to pull the score to 15-13.
The Dolphins expanded their lead to double-digits for the first time in the game with 6:10 left to play. Gamal Mahmoud sank a three-point bucket to give Le Moyne a 28-16 edge.
The Warriors closed the gap to seven points as Strothers converted a free throw with 4:21 remaining in the opening period.
The home team scored the final eight points of the first frame to go into the halftime break with a 49-29 lead.
Young paced Merrimack at intermission with 10 points while Strothers and Mack each contributed seven points through the first 20 minutes of action. The Warriors were plagued by turnovers in the opening half with 13 giveaways.
After the Dolphins opened the second half with five-straight points, Merrimack strung together an 8-0 run to draw to within 17 early on, 54-37.
Le Moyne held onto a lead of 20 or more points throughout the second stanza. The Warriors cut the gap back to 17 with 36 seconds left to play as Travonne Berry-Rogers (Lynn, MA) netted a jumper.
Merrimack finished the game with a field goal percentage of 50%, matching the hosts. The Warriors connected on just 26.7% of their three-point attempts while the Dolphins drained 14-of-30 shots from beyond the arc.
The visitors owned the rebounding edge in the contest with a 31-30 margin.
"We did not come out and play the way we needed to tonight," said head coach Bert Hammel. "They are a very good team who executed on both ends of the floor. We needed to do a better job of responding on offense and defense."
Up next, Merrimack welcomes Southern Connecticut State to Bert Hammel Court January 14 at 2:00 pm.
