Women's Basketball Rolls Past Saint Rose, 81-59
Links: Box Score
ALBANY, N.Y. – The Merrimack College women's basketball team snapped its two-game losing skid with a convincing, 81-59, victory over the College of Saint Rose on Tuesday night from Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium to capture its first win of 2015 and snap a two-game losing skid.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 81 | Saint Rose 59
Records: Merrimack (9-5, 5-4 NE-10) | Saint Rose (6-9, 3-7 NE-10)
Location: Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium | Albany, N.Y.
What They Said
Head coach Monique LeBlanc: "Tonight was an important game for our team against a very good Saint Rose team. We had a great defensive focus and intensity, which propelled us to a strong team win."
How It Happened
Saint Rose scored the first three points of the game, but Merrimack answered with a 9-1 spurt. An Aria Johnson (Los Osos, Calif.) layup at the 18:32 mark gave the Warriors their first lead of the game at 4-3. On the next possession, senior guard Chloe Rothman (Newton, Mass.) sank a three-pointer to give the Warriors a four-point advantage, causing Saint Rose to burn their first timeout. Out of the timeout, Johnson hit another shot to make it 9-4.
Over a two-minute span the Warriors turned a 12-10 lead into a 17-10 game courtesy of a Caitlyn Garger (Hicksville, N.Y.) three-pointer, only her fifth of the season, and another bucket from Johnson with 11:54 to go.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in the first stanza, the Warriors scored nine straight points turning a five-point lead into a 26-12 advantage. Garger scored seven of the Navy and Gold's nine points during that span, including her second three-pointer of the game.
Free throws from Johnson with 4:16 remaining in the half gave the Warriors a 15-point edge, 32-17, which turned out to be their largest of the half. Saint Rose did score 11 of the final 15 points of the first half, as the Warriors took a 36-28 into intermission.
The Navy and Gold did not let Saint Rose's late first-half run carry over to start of the second half. With the score reading 42-30 with 16:43 left, the Warriors scored 17 of the games next 27 points to take a 59-37 lead with 11:37 to go. Five different players scored for Merrimack over that stretch, including three-point plays converted by Tia Scott (New York, N.Y.) and Stormee Van Belle (Sunnyside, Wash.).
At the 11:15 mark of the second half, Amanda Hoover (Columbus, Ohio) made her first appearance in a Warriors uniform. The transfer student arrives at Merrimack following two years spent at Roxbury Community College and initially committing to play for Division I South Alabama, but actually never played for the Jaguars.
The lead for Merrimack stayed comfortable for that point on. Garger hit her third three-pointer of the night with less than seven minutes to remaining to make it 67-43. Junior center Madison Ward (Binghamton, N.Y.) hit a layup one minute later to make it 69-43, which would mark Merrimack's largest lead of the game.
With 3:15 left, Scott hit a layup to make it 74-48 in favor of Merrimack. The bucket gave Scott 10 points as she became the fifth member of the Navy and Gold to reach double figures.
Merrimack would go on to win by a final score of 81-59. It is the third time this season that Merrimack has scored at least 80 points, and the second time that they have done so in regulation. The Navy and Gold are now 3-0 in games in which they score at least 80 points.
Inside The Numbers
- Merrimack's top-three scorers, Rothman, Johnson and Garger, scored 29 of the Warriors' 36 first-half points (81 percent). Johnson and Garger were both in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively
- Garger finished the contest with 17 points to lead the team. Over the last two games, the sophomore has connected on six-of-seven from three-point range, after only attempting three three-pointers over the first 12 games of the year
- It took her until late in the second half, but Scott scored in double figures for the first time this season. The junior, who has started every that she has appeared in this season, finished two-for-three from the field, but made eight-of-nine from the free-throw line, setting a career high in free-throws made
- Van Belle posted one of her best games this season with 10 points and five rebounds off the bench. The rookie was part of an interior attack that outscored the Golden Knights by 12 points in the paint.
- Freshman Adrianna DeCicco (Shokan, N.Y.) took the floor for the first time in 2015, as the freshman scored three points, all from the charity stripe, in five minutes of action
- Defense wins: Tonight's game marked the sixth time that Merrimack has held a team below 60 points. The Warriors are now 6-0 when such a situation occurs.
Up Next
Merrimack returns home to face another program from upstate New York, as Le Moyne College comes to North Andover on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The game marks youth day for the Warriors. Single-game tickets will be available for purchase online at this link, or by calling the Merrimack Athletics Box Office at 978-837-5324. Adult tickets cost $5, while youth/senior tickets cost $3.
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For continuing coverage of Merrimack College Athletics, visit MerrimackAthletics.com and follow the Warriors on Twitter and on Facebook.
