Women's Basketball Triumphs Over St. Michael's, 64-59, Saturday Afternoon
Links: Box Score | Monique LeBlanc Interview
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College women's basketball team began the second half on a 9-0 run and never looked back as the Warriors defeated Saint Michael's College, 64-59, from Hammel Court on Saturday afternoon.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 64 | St. Michael's 59
Records: Merrimack (6-3, 4-2, NE-10) | St. Michael's (6-4, 2-4 NE-10)
Location: Hammel Court | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
Missing a couple of key players from its rotation, it took the Warriors until the start of the second half to sustain a consistent lead, but once Merrimack got the lead, they never gave it up in the second stanza.
The team's combined for 15 turnovers in the first half, as the neither the Purple Knights nor the Warriors really got into a rhythm offensively. Merrimack lead 4-0 through the first 2:30 of the game, but St. Michael's scored 12 of the next 16 points to take a 12-8 lead at the 15:28 mark.
Over the next seven-plus minutes the Purple Knights held the lead, with Merrimack tying the score twice at 16-16 and 18-18. With just under seven minutes left in the half, Aria Johnson (Los Osos, Calif.) gave Merrimack its first lead in over 10 minutes at 20-18.
The squads went back-and-forth from there, with neither squad holding more than a three-point lead. St. Michael's connected on a two-pointer with 21 seconds left in the half to take a 32-30 lead into the intermission.
Senior Chloe Rothman (Newton, Mass.), the Warriors leading scorer at nearly 18 points per game, struggled in the first half, but found her shot in the second stanza. Rothman scored nine of Merrimack's first 13 points of the second half, as the Warriors began on a 9-0 run to take a 39-32 lead. The Purple Knights led for only the first 42 seconds of the final 20 minutes.
A Madison Ward (Binghamton, N.Y) layup with less than 13 minutes to go gave the Warriors a 47-37 lead, their largest lead up to that point. A little over two minutes later, Ashley Weissmann (Highland, Calif) scored to give the Navy and Gold its largest lead of the game, 53-41.
The Purple Knights would not go away. With the Warriors holding a nine-point advantage with 7:53 remaining, St. Michael's scored the next five points to make it 57-53 with 7:07 to go. At that point, the game hit a lull, as neither team scored of the next 3:27 of game time. St. Michael's would snap the scoreless drought with a two-pointer to make it a one-possession game at 57-55.
The Purple Knight had a chance to tie the game at the free-throw line with 3:19 left in regulation, but Leah Spencer hit one-of-two from the charity stripe. Clinging to the lead, Merrimack scored the next seven points to ice the contest. A three-point at the buzzer for St. Michael's gave the game its final score of 64-59.
Inside The Numbers
- With two points in the first half, Rothman became just the 15th player in program to reach 1,100 career points. The senior continues to climb the all-time scoring rankings, as she finished today's game with a game-high 14 points
- Johnson posted one of her best efforts of the season, totaling 14 points and 10 rebounds. It was the senior's third double-double of the year and tied her season-high for boards
- With a couple players out for the Warriors, freshman Stormee Van Belle (Sunnyside, Wash.) made her first career start. She played a season-high 28 minutes, totaling four points, a career-high eight rebounds and three assists
- Weissmann reached two milestones. She score her 500th career point in her 65th career game, while also posting a career-high 11 rebounds
Up Next
The Warriors return to action on Friday night at 7 p.m. when they'll take on Bloomfield down in New Jersey.
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