Boulter Drops Forty, Barry Reaches 1,000 Points as Men's Basketball Outlasts SCSU, 100-94

1/30/2017 12:00:00 AM

Links: Box Score | Game Highlights | Ryan Boulter Interview

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Sophomore forward Ryan Boulter (Mansfield, Mass.) posted a 40-point effort while tying the program record with nine 3-pointers and senior Anthony Barry (Uxbridge, Mass.) recorded his 1,000^th career point to headline a 100-94 overtime victory for the Merrimack College men's basketball team on Monday night against the Southern Connecticut State University Owls. The contest marked the non-conference finale for the Warriors, who avenged a Northeast-10 Conference loss earlier this month to the Owls.

The Basics
Score: Merrimack 100, Southern Conn. 94
Records: Merrimack (15-6) | Southern Conn. (15-7)
Location: Hammel Court | North Andover, Mass.  

The Turning Point:
After Michael Mallory tied the game at 84-all with under seven seconds left to force an extra five minutes, the Warriors started overtime on a 7-0 run to take a 91-84 lead before reaching the century mark in the waning seconds of the night. Sophomore guard Troy McLaughlin (Old Tappan, N.J.) scored 10 of his 14 points in the extra session, including five of the seven points of the Warriors' spurt that gave Merrimack a comfortable lead.

How It Happened (First Half)

• Boulter hit two 3-pointers over the first 3:12 of the game to stake the Warriors to a 12-6 advantage. The Owls responded with a 6-1 run to pull within one point, 13-12, with 15:53 remaining
• Redshirt-junior Tawayne Anderson Jr. (Garden City, N.J.) came off to bench and converted consecutive layups to break an 18-18 tie at the midway point of the half. Boulter connected on two more triples over the next two minutes, followed by a 14-footer on the baseline that gave the Navy and Gold a 34-24 lead with 6:27 left
• The visitors answered with a 10-2 run over the next four minutes to pull within two, 36-34, with 2:08 remaining. Austin Carter scored five of the 10 points during the stretch
• The Warriors completed a furious finish to the half, using a 10-2 of their own to take a 10-point lead into the break. Boulter's fifth triple of the opening stanza went through the net with 45 seconds left, while freshman point Juvaris Hayes (Paterson, N.J.) drilled a left-wing trey as the buzzer sounded to make it a 46-36 game after 20 minutes

How It Happened (Second Half/OT)

• Over the first six-plus minutes of the second stanza, the Warriors saw their lead fall to three, 54-51, as the Owls used a 15-8 spurt to make it a one-possession game. After a seven-point first half, Barry slipped off a screen and pulled up for a straightaway triple to half the Owls' stretch and etched his name into the Merrimack record book as the 43^rd 1,000-point scorer in program history
• An 8-0 stretch bookended by a pair of Boulter 3-pointers gave the Warriors an 11-point lead, 71-57, with 8:58 remaining. The Owls continued to chip away, however, as a layup from Joey Wallace with 5:05 left capping a 13-4 stretch that allowed the visitors to make it a five-point deficit, 75-70
• Following Barry's second 3-pointer of the night that made it an 80-72 game, the Owls scored eight unanswered points – four each for Malloy and Wallace – to tie the game at 80-all. Wallace's game-tying tip-in fell through with 1:11 left, but on the Warriors' next possession Barry converted an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Navy and Gold ahead, 83-80
• A missed free throw from Hayes kept the Owls within two points with 21 seconds left, and Malloy drove into a double team before banking a shot in to tie the game at 84-84 and send the night to overtime
• After a quiet two halves of basketball, McLaughlin came on strong for the Warriors in the final five minutes. The sophomore's three-point play created an eight-point gap, 94-86, with 41 seconds to play. McLaughlin, Boulter and junior Kyle Howes (Maynard, Mass.) combined to go 6-of-6 from the line over the final 23 seconds to keep the Owls at arms length and preserved the win

Inside The Numbers

• With Barry's triple six minutes into the second stanza, the fifth-year forward entered the 1,000-point club as he continued his career season with the Warriors. He entered further rarified air by becoming just the 14^th player at Merrimack to accumulate both 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds
• Barry was not the only Warrior to enter the program record book on Monday, as Boulter's nine 3-pointers tied the all-time record for triples in a game. The sophomore forward became the third player in program history to hit nine, reaching the mark for the first time since Matt Van Leeuwen in 1999
• The sharpshooter's 40-point performance marked a new career high, with the nine treys also a new personal best. Boulter shot 13-of-27 from the field, posting the program's first 40-point effort since Gelvis Solano '16 in January of 2015
• Boulter equaled his opponent on Monday, Michael Mallory, for the second 40-point game for a NE10 student-athlete this season. The effort fell three points shy of tying the scoring high for the region this season
• Mallory led the visitors with 28 points, but only shot 11-of-32 from the field and 4-of-13 from beyond the arc. The Merrimack defense held the Owls to 25 percent shooting from distance (7-28), including an 0-of-6 effort from Isaiah McLeod
• Not to get lost in the shuffle, Hayes continued to prove his stock as one of the top newcomers nationwide with his ninth double-double of the season. The first-year floor general collected 12 points and 12 assists, increasing his nation-leading assist-per-game average to 9.3

Up Next
The Warriors return to divisional play on Wednesday night when the Navy and Gold travel to Colchester, Vt. in search of a season sweep of Saint Michael's College at 7:30 p.m. from the Ross Sports Center.     

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