Shepard’s Career-High Propels Women’s Basketball to Victory Over #3 Siena in MAAC Quarterfinals

Atlantic City, N.J. – The Merrimack College women's basketball team beat Siena College in the quarterfinals of the MAAC tournament on Thursday afternoon. Thalia Shepard had a career-high 27 points in the victory after going seven of 12 from the field. She also grabbed seven rebounds. Rose Caso a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Lydia Melaschenko and Paloma Garcia were the other two Warriors to finish in double figures with 13 and 10 points each.
 
The Basics
Score: #3 Siena 72, #6 Merrimack 79
Records: #3 Siena (16-14, 11-8), #6 Merrimack (14-16, 9-11)
 
Rapid Recap
The first quarter started with the Warriors going on a six-point run. The Saints stopped the charge with a basket, cutting the lead down to four. Melashenko and Caso nailed back-to-back threes to put Merrimack up by 10. Siena battle back, getting the lead down to four with just under four minutes to play in the first. Both teams battled back and forth for a number of minutes, trading buckets and defensive stops. After a Caso free throw that put Merrimack up seven, the Saints nailed a three with eight seconds remaining to head into the second down by four. Siena added two points to make it a one possession game. Shepard then drove the lane for two, putting the Warriors up by four. Merrimack then added four straight points to go up eight. Both teams traded baskets. With five minutes to play Siena hit a three to cut the lead down to seven. Caso added a free throw to put Merrimack back up eight. The Saints then added three points to go down five. Shepard hit a free throw to go back up two possessions. With eight seconds to go in the half, Merrimack found themselves up by eight. Two free throws at the end of the half from the Saints went them into halftime down six.
 
The Warriors scored the first seven points of the third quarter, swelling the lead to 13 points. The Saints would battle back getting the lead down to nine. Garcia then found the bottom of the net with a three to put Merrimack up by 12. Siena scored four points to cut the advantage down to eight. With two and a half minutes to go in the third quarter, the Warriors had their biggest lead of the game at 14 points. Merrimack would keep the lead and head into the final stanza up by 14. The Saints opened the fourth with six straight points, slicing the lead down to eight. Shepard scored seven straight point to put Merrimack up by 15. Caso added a jumper to make the advantage 17. With four minutes to play, Merrimack was up by 14. Siena then went on a nine-point run to make it a five-point game. Good free throw shooting down the stretch gave the Warriors a seven-point upset over Saints.


Notes and Numbers
 
The Warriors forced 15 turnovers and scored 21 points off the giveaways.
Merrimack shot 39 free throws and knocked down 32 of them.
Garcia led the team in steals with three.
 
Up Next
The Warriors will take on Quinnipiac University on Friday afternoon in the MAAC semifinals. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m.