Women's Basketball Set For Home Opener Against Saint Anselm On Wednesday
Game Notes (PDF)
THE PARTICULARS:
The Merrimack women's basketball team returns home for their first home contest of the season on Wednesday as they play host to the Saint Anselm Hawks in a conference game. The Warriors enter the contest with a 3-1 record after dropping their last game to the #2 Bentley Falcons on the road. The Hawks enter with a 3-2 overall record after winning their last game over Chestnut Hill by the score of 53-32. The Hawks have an 0-2 conference record after losing contests to Southern New Hampshire and Stonehill while the Warriors are 1-1 after defeating Franklin Pierce and falling at Bentley.
ABOUT MERRIMACK:
The Warriors have received spread out offensive production so far this season as all 11 players are averaging at least nine minutes of playing time a game. Seven Warriors are averaging at least 5.8 points per contest including Chloe Rothman who is averaging a team-high 10.5 points, 5.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game. Senior Kelly Schatzlein is averaging a team-best 9.8 rebounds and 8.3 points per contest while fellow senior Jaclyn Lyons is averaging 9.3 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per contest. Junior Shelby Secor has performed well in the strating lineup for the Warriors as she has started all four games and is averaging 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per contest. The freshman duo pf Ashley Weissmann and Tia Scott have given the Warriors a spark off the bench averaging 6.0 and 5.8 points per game respectively. Senior Katie Ganser is averaging 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while leading the NE-10 in 3-point percentage shooting 66.7 percent from behind the arc.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION:
The Hawks enter the contest with a 3-2 overall record and 0-2 conference mark. They are led offensively by Briana Jones who is averaging 12.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Allie Jones ranks second on the team averaging 9.2 points while she ranks first in rebounds averaging 7.4 per contest. Curran Leighton is averaging 6.8 points and 5.0 rebounds as she has started all five games for the Hawks this year.All-Time Series:The Warriors are 22-39 against the Hawks all-time and lost both matchups with them last season. The Warriors are 3-3 against the Hawks in their last six matchups.
LAST GAME (MERRIMACK 61 - BENTLEY 73):
The Merrimack women's basketball team traveled to #2 Bentley on Tuesday and were downed by the Falcons by the score of 73-61. Merrimack held a two point halftime lead but they were not able to hold on down the stretch after sophomore Chloe Rothman fouled out of the contest. The Warriors were led by Rothman who finished the game with 14 points on 5-8 from the floor and 3-5 from behind the arc. Shelby Secor had her best game of the season as she finished with a career-high 13 points and four rebounds in only 16 minutes of action. The Warriors finished the game shooting 37 percent from the floor and a season-high 78.6 percent from the free throw line in the defeat.
975 POINTS, 691 REBOUNDS AND COUNTING:
Senior forward Kelly Schatzlein has turned into one of the best players in the Northeast-10 Conference over the past four seasons. Schatzlein hauled in a game-high 13 rebounds and scored nine points in the losing effort on Tuesday. Schatzlein is now just 25 points shy of joining the 1,000 point club for Merrimack. She will be only the 18th player in school history to record 1,000 points. Schatzlein also ranks fifth in school history in rebounds with 691. She is only eight rebounds shy of fourth place on the all-time list. If Schatzlein can rack up 309 more rebounds this season she will be only the second Warrior ever to rack up 1,000 career rebounds and 1,000 career points.
POINTS OFF TURNOVERS DOOM WARRIORS IN SECOND HALF:
One of the biggest problems for the Warriors last season was allowing their opponents to score on turnovers. In Tuesday's loss this trend continued as the Falcons were able to score 20 points off Warrior turnovers while Merrimack scored 10 points on Falcons turnovers. The Falcons outscored the Warriors 8-2 in the second half when they overcame a six point deficit to down Merrimack.
POINTS IN THE PAINT ALTERNATES BY HALF:
In the first half in which Merrimack stuck to a two point lead the Warriors outscored the Falcons 18-16 in points in the paint. During the second half in which Bentley outscored the Warriors by 14, the Falcons dominated the paint outscoring Merrimack by 10 points.
TEN WARRIORS SEE ACTION AGAINST #2 IN THE COUNTRY:
The Warriors are one of the youngest teams in the Northeast-10 Conference this season as they have nine underclassmen and just three seniors on their squad. The youthful Warriors proved to the rest of the league that they are also a very deep team as ten players played in their last contest. Senior captain's Katie Ganser and Kelly Schatzlein each played the most minutes as they played 34 and 32 minutes repectively. Chloe Rothman saw 24 minutes of action before fouling out and freshman Tia Scott saw 22 minutes of play against #2 Bentley. Ashley Weissmann and Melissa Miller came off the bench and provided the Warriors with some solid minutes as they recorded 15 and 13 minutes respectively.
SPREAD OUT SCORING CONTINUES FOR THE WARRIORS:
Three Warriors scored in double figures in the loss on Tuesday as Chloe Rothman led the way once again with 14 points. Junior Shelby Secor racked up 13 points while freshman Tia Scott scored 10 off the bench. Kelly Schatzlein also scored double figures as she finished with nine points while Jaclyn Lyons scored six and Melissa Miller scored four off the bench in the loss.
