Regular-Season Champion Men's Basketball Wraps Up Regular Season At Niagara

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, NY - The Merrimack men's basketball team concludes the regular season on Sunday with a 2 p.m. visit to Niagara.

The Warriors are 20-10 overall and 16-3 in the MAAC, having clinched the conference's regular-season championship.
 
THE LATEST
• Merrimack clinched the outright MAAC Regular Season Championship last Sunday with a double-overtime victory over Iona, giving the Warriors the No. 1 seed in next week's MAAC Championship and a win over every team in the conference this season. • Joe Gallo and the Warriors have won 4 conference regular season championships in 7 years in Division I and Gallo's 4th 20-win season in 10 years as a head coach.
 • The Warriors have the best MAAC conference record since joining the league last season, with a 30-9 conference record, ahead of Quinnipiac (26-13) and Marist (26-14) for the best record over the last two seasons. For the 34th time in 40 MAAC games, the Warriors enter a contest in first place in the conference standings.
• Kevair Kennedy has put himself in position to sweep the MAAC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors. He has swept the MAAC Player and Rookie of the Week awards in back-to-back weeks and is now a 6x MAAC Rookie of the Week. Kennedy is leading the league in scoring at 18.5 ppg and is also averaging a league-best 20.9 ppg in conference games. Kennedy has scored 20 points or more in five-straight games and 10 of the last 12. He has scored in double-figures in all but one collegiate game - including 28 straight. He  leads Merrimack and is 4th in the conference in assists (4.1 apg) and ranks 4th in the league in steals (2.0 spg).
• Ernest Shelton, a high school teammate of Kevair Kennedy at Philadelphia's Father Judge High School, is second on the team and 6th in the MAAC in scoring at 15.9 points per game.  Shelton, a Division II transfer from Gannon University in Erie, PA, has scored 20 or more points 6 times, and in double figures in 26 of the 29 games. He has made a 3-pointer in every game and has 13 3s in the last five games.
• The Warriors had an eight-game winning streak snapped on Friday at Canisius, but have won 10 of the last 12 and are 18-4 in the last 22 games.
• Merrimack finished 11-0 at home, the first Warrior team to go undefeated at home since the 1990-91 team also went 11-0.
• The Warriors are 12-0 when they scores 70 points or more. Merrimack leads the MAAC in turnover margin (+3.03) and are 2nd in the MAAC in steals (8.20).
• The Warriors #MakeChaos zone defense has continued to cause problems for opponents. Merrimack has allowed over 66 points in regulation only 5x in the last 21 games.
• Tye Dorset has scored in three-straight games and five of the last 6. He has made 7 3-pointers in the last three games.