Men's Basketball Edged by UMass Lowell, 61-57

NORTH ANDOVER, MASS. – The Merrimack College men's basketball team suffered its fifth loss of the season against the University of Massachusetts Lowell in only the second game ever played in Lawler Arena. Jordan Minor, once again led the way for the Warriors, scoring 19 points and pulling down 10 rebounds for a double-double. Mikey Watkins scored 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Malik Edmead chipped in with 11 points off of the bench.

The Essentials
Score: Merrimack 57, UMass Lowell  61
Records: Merrimack (4-5) | Umass Lowell (6-3)
Location: Lawler Arena | North Andover, Mass.

Rapid Recap

• A backdoor cut and score by Devin Jensen got the scoring going for the Warriors. The River Hawks added four points to go up by two. Watkins had a scoop layup for two and tied the game up. Another backdoor cut by Jensen and a thunderous slam on a fast break by Minor gave the Warriors an early four-point lead. Edmead scored a quick seven points in his first three minutes. The offensive explosion gave Merrimack a seven-point lead with just under 13 minutes to play. The River Hawks cut the Warriors advantage to five, but was shortly swelled up to eight after a Jordan McKoy three. UMass Lowell cut the lead to four on two different occasions, but was built back up to seven both times after threes from Mykel Derring and Jensen. A circus layup by Watkins made the lead 10 for the first time of the game. The Merrimack advantage got to 14 after a Minor layup. The Warriors took a 10-point lead into halftime.
• Minor scored the first bucket of the second half for the Warriors to go up 12. The River Hawks then went on a 6-0 run to go down by six. With just under 15 minutes to play the Warriors lead was cut down to three. Merrimack fought the advantage back up to six after a Minor layup. Nobody scored for over three minutes of game time, until Watkins made the Warrior lead eight. Edmead got back on the court and quickly scored a layup to put Merrimack up eight. With 2:35 left in the game Umass Lowell took its first lead since the first couple minutes of the first half. With 43 seconds left, Watkins scored a layup to go down two. The River Hawks knocked down their free throws and won the game by four.

Notes and Numbers

• Minor earned his third double-double in three games.
• Watkins tied his career-high with eight rebounds in the loss.
• The Warriors scored 34 points in the paint and 12 points off of fast breaks.

Up Next
Merrimack stays at home to take on Brown on Tuesday night. Game time is set for 7 p.m.