Strothers Sinks 1,000th Point as Men's Basketball Drops Narrow Decision at Bentley
WALTHAM, MA- Senior Aaron Strothers (Wareham, MA) became the 39th player in program history to score 1,000 career points as he finished with 15 points in the Merrimack men's basketball team's 81-78 loss to Bentley at the Dana Center Tuesday evening. The Warriors dip to 10-10 overall and 7-9 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Falcons soar to 15-5 on the season and 11-5 in conference games.
Merrimack moves into a three-way tie for ninth place in the league standings with Southern NH and Saint Anselm. The Warriors still have a game remaining against each team this season.
With a long-ranged two-pointer 5:07 into the second half, Strothers eclipsed the millennium mark. With his 15-point performance Tuesday, the senior stands at 1,007 career points.
Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) paced Merrimack with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field. Mike Clifford (Danvers, MA) chipped in with 19 points and eight rebounds.
Merrimack raced out to a 7-0 lead after 2:22 had elapsed on four points from Strothers and a trey by Wilfredo Pagan (Lawrence, MA).
A 12-0 run expanded the Warriors' advantage to 17 points, 23-6, with 11:49 remaining in the first half.
The Falcons cut the visitors' edge to one point with 2:57 showing on the clock, 36-35, as Andrew Shaw netted a lay-in.
Mack dialed down a three-pointer to push Merrimack's lead to four with 1:20 left to play in the opening frame.
Bentley's Sam Leclerc sank a jumper at the buzzer to put the halftime score at 41-39 in favor of the visitors.
Clifford led the Warriors at the halftime break with 12 points and four boards. Mack poured in 11 through 20 minutes of play.
Merrimack connected on 47.4% of its field goal attempts in the opening frame. Bentley headed into the intermission sporting a 44.8 field goal percentage.
Mack extended the Warriors' lead to five as he drained a triple to open the second half.
A trio of three-pointers by the Falcons gave them a 48-44 edge.
Merrimack reclaimed the lead with 13:56 remaining in regulation with a 7-0 clip capped off by a trey by Mack.
Bentley scored 10 unanswered points to grab a nine-point advantage with 11:15 left to play.
Kevin Regan (Philadelphia, PA) knocked down his first bucket of the game, a three-pointer, to slice the margin to eight with five minutes to go in the contest.
Clifford pulled Merrimack to within three, 75-72, as he banked in a layup with 2:20 remaining in the game.
Mack converted four-consecutive free throws in a span of four seconds to draw the Warriors to within one with just seconds showing on the clock, 79-78.
After the Falcons added a layup with five seconds left, Mack's game-tying three-point bid came up just short as the final horn sounded.
Merrimack shot 46% from the floor in the game while Bentley finished the contest with a field goal percentage of 49%. The Falcons connected on 14-of-33 attempts from downtown in the game.
The Warriors pulled down 38 rebounds in the loss while limiting the hosts to 34.
"I thought we played hard tonight and competed well. We made some defensive mistakes and allowed them to play to their strengths," said head coach Bert Hammel. "Offensively, we need to continue to play to our strengths. We will go back to work in practice to prepare for another tough game this weekend."
Merrimack will open a stretch of five-straight home contests February 4 when it hosts Stonehill.
