Women's Basketball Shoots For Fourth Straight Conference Victory On Wednesday
Game Notes (PDF)
THE PARTICULARS:
The Merrimack women's basketball team hits the road on Wednesday night looking for their fourth straight conference victory as they travel to Saint Rose for a 5:30 p.m. tip. Merrimack will be looking to improve on their 4-3 road record. The Warriors are coming off of a come-from-behind victory over Southern Connecticut on Saturday afternoon as they trailed by seven at half and won in overtime by four. The Golden Knights enter the game with a 5-10 record including losing three straight conference games. Saint Rose was downed 79-74 on Saturday. The two conference victories for St. Rose came against teams that Merrimack also beat this year.
ABOUT MERRIMACK:
The Warriors offensive attack has been very spread out this season as they have had six players lead the team in scoring. The Warriors are led by their senior captain Kelly Schatzlein who leads the NE-10 in rebounding averaging 10.9 rebounds per contest after hauling in seven rebounds in their last outing. Schatzlein also is averaging 12.1 points per contest for the Warriors while sophomore point guard Chloe Rothman has continued to grow this season, averaging 14.3 points to go along with 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds a game after scoring 34 points in her last game. Seniors Jaclyn Lyons and Katie Ganser have enjoyed nice starts to the season as they are averaging 10.0 and 4.8 points per game so far. The bench has been a strength of the Warriors all year, Ashley Weissmann leads the bunch off the bench, scoring 8.3 points per game.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION:
The Golden Knights enter with a 5-10 overall mark including a 2-9 conference record after losing three straight games. Offensively Nicole Bini leads the way averaging 13.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest while Gabie Polce is averaging 9.7 points and 3.1 assists. The Golden Knights leading rebounder is Maria Sanchez who is averaging 8.9 boards to go along with 5.5 points. Saint Rose is strong defensively averaging 4.1 blocks and holding opponents to 64.6 points.
ALL-TIME SERIES:
The Warriors are 9-12 against Saint Rose all-time including losing 68-62 to the Golden Knights last season.
LAST GAME (MERRIMACK 74 - SOUTHERN CONN. 70 (OT)):
The Merrimack women's basketball team picked up their third straight conference victory on Saturday afternoon defeating the Southern Connecticut Owls by the score of 74-70 in overtime. The Warriors trailed by seven at halftime but sophomore Chloe Rothman took over in the second half, scoring 23 of her career-high 34 points in the second half. Rothman converted on a one-footed game-tying three pointer with 15 seconds to play to force overtime. In the overtime period the Warriors dominated, outscoring the Owls 10-6. Senior Kelly Schatzlein continued her solid play, finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds while Casi Amenta came off the bench and scored six points and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds in the win.
ROTHMAN LIGHTS UP OWLS IN OVERTIME VICTORY:
Sophomore Chloe Rothman had the best game of her young career on Saturday afternoon as she finished with a career-best 34 points to go along with a career-high five steals. Rothman finished the game going 12-for-25 from the floor and scored 23 of her points in the second half alone. The 34-point effort is the second most in program history at Merrimack. Rothman went 9-for-18 from the floor in the second half and hit the game-tying three pointer to force overtime for the Warriors in their win. She also scored four points in the overtime period for Merrimack.
SCHATZLEIN LEADS NE-10 IN REBOUNDING:
Senior Kelly Schatzlein continued her strong play on Saturday afternoon as she scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the Warriors overtime win. Schatzlein finished the game 4-7 from the floor, grabbing five offensive rebounds and playing in a season-high 37 minutes. Schatzlein now leads the NE-10 in rebounding, averaging 10.9 boards and 12.1 points per contest and is one of two players in the conference to average a double-double. If she can rack up 185 more rebounds this season she will be only the second Warrior ever to rack up 1,000 career rebounds and 1,000 career points.
BACK-TO-BACK COMEBACK VICTORIES FOR YOUNG WARRIORS:
The Merrimack Warriors have erased halftime deficits in their last two games. The Warriors trailed the Le Moyne Dolphins by one on Tuesday and they trailed the Southern Connecticut Owls by seven on Saturday, both wins. With the two wins, Merrimack improves to 3-2 on the year when trailing at half.
WARRIORS WIN TURNOVER BATTLE ONCE AGAIN:
Another strength of the Warriors all season long has been the production of their bench players. On Saturday this continued as the Warriors scored 12 bench points. Cassi Amenta was a force for the Warriors finishing with six points and 11 rebounds while Tia Scott finished off her nice game with six points in 12 minutes and went 4-4 from the free throw line. The Warriors bench was thin due to a late injury to starting center Shelby Secor.
MERRIMACK HOLDS HUGE MARGIN OF VICTORY IN 11 WINS:
Merrimack already has doubled the amount of wins that they had all last season, through only 15 games. The Warriors average margin of victory in their 11 wins this season is impressive. The Warriors win their games by a average of 16.2 points. The Warriors have recorded wins of 48, 30 points, 20 points, 18 points twice, 15 points, 11 points and eight points so far this season. The young Warriors are learning how to close out games which was a problem they could not overcome last year with the game in the balance, nearing the end of the game, winning three games by five points of less.
