Red-Hot Shooting Carries Men's Basketball to 63-56 Victory Over Saint Rose
NORTH ANDOVER, MA- Fueled by a career-performance by Wilfredo Pagan (Lawrence, MA), the Merrimack men's basketball team captured a 63-56 victory over Saint Rose Tuesday evening at Bert Hammel Court. The Warriors improve to 8-8 on the season and 5-7 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Golden Knights slip to 2-14 overall and 2-10 in league contests with the loss.
Pagan poured in a personal-best 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from behind the arc. Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) led all scorers with 16 points and five assists. Tyler Young (Brooklyn, NY) and Mike Clifford (Danvers, MA) each chipped in with 10 points while Roland Davis (Deer Park, NY) added eight points and six helpers.
Merrimack started out scoring eight of the first ten points in the contest to grab an early 8-2 advantage.
After the Golden Knights leveled the score at 11-11, Young reclaimed the lead for the hosts with a dunk. Davis dished a no-look bounce pass to Young cutting to the rim for the easy slam and a 13-11 edge.
Saint Rose netted five-consecutive points to capture a 16-13 gap with 11:21 left to play in the opening stanza.
Pagan drained his second trey of the night with 9:02 remaining in the first half to put Merrimack ahead 18-16.
The Warriors pushed their lead to seven points with five minutes to go until halftime as Davis found an unmarked Clifford under the hoop with another blind pass. The junior forward jammed the ball through the hoop for his third and fourth points of the game.
With his third-straight three-pointer, Pagan set a new career-high for triples made while giving Merrimack its first double-figure lead of the night late in the first period, 32-22.
The Warriors closed out the half on a 7-0 run spanning 4:17 to hold a 34-22 advantage at the midway point of the game.
The home team shot a scorching 58.3% from the field to go with a three-point shooting percentage of 44.4 through 20 minutes of action.
Pagan paced Merrimack with nine points at halftime. Young netted eight points and hauled in five rebounds while Mack deposited seven points. Davis dished out five dimes in the first frame to go along with four points.
Merrimack held the Golden Knights to just 34.6% shooting from the floor and 33.3% from downtown in the first half.
The Warriors stretched the gap to 19 points with 12:12 left to play in the second stanza on a trey from Kevin Regan (Philadelphia, PA), 49-30.
The visitors drew to within eight, 49-41, as Andre Pope sank a three-pointer to cap off an 11-0 run with 6:29 showing on the clock.
Saint Rose cut the hosts' lead to three with two minutes remaining in regulation as Rob Gutierrez stole the ball and scored a fast-break layup.
Davis and Mack extended Merrimack's lead to seven as each scored lay-ups to push the score to 59-52.
The Warriors converted four of five free throw attempts in the final minute of action to seal the victory.
Merrimack finished the game with a field goal percentage of 51.2 to accompany a 50% shooting effort from long distance. The Golden Knights were quelled to 40.4% shooting from the court and 33.3% from three-point range.
The Warriors sported a 35-26 rebounding margin on the night, including a 38-17 spread in defensive boards.
"We played well defensively tonight and got some good stops. We just need to eliminate some of the errors that happen over the course of the game," said head coach Bert Hammel. "As a team, we also need to figure out how to score points when we are going through a scoring slump. We will look to keep things going in the right direction this weekend."
Up next, Merrimack will travel to American International January 21 for a 3:30 pm tip-off.
