NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack men’s basketball
team converted 33 of its 41 free throws to pull away in the second
half from rival Assumption College 95-81 Wednesday at the Volpe
Gym.
Darren Duncan (Briarwood, NY) tallied 25 points,
17 on free throws and added five assists and three steals.
Darin Mency (Hagerstown, MD) also had 25 points,
12 of them from the charity stripe.
The Warriors struggled early from the field, missing their first
13 three-pointers before Craig Woehnker (Colts Neck,
NJ) and Mency drained back-to-back trey balls in the final
minute of the first half to cut the deficit to three, 44-41 at
halftime.
Merrimack shot 48.5% percent in the second half, compared to 33%
in the first, while converting on six of its 14 three-pointers.
They seized the lead for good off a Chris Winters (East
Lyme, CT) post move at 59-57 with 10:25 to play and used a
24-13 run over the next six minutes to pull away from the
Greyhounds. Mency drained two three-pointers in succession with
eight minutes to play to push the lead to 11, and Woehnker sealed
in the final minutes with back-to-back threes.
Woehnker finished with 11 points, eight in the second half, while
Winters added ten points and nine boards before fouling out. In his
home debut, Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) tallied 11
points, five steals and four rebounds while playing the entire
game. Senior David Kennedy (East Northport, NY)
added nine points and nine boards.
Greg Twomey led all scorers with 28 points while Mitch Bajema and
Mike Baldarelli added 15 each. The Greyhounds shot 46% from the
field in the game but 21 turnovers doomed the visitors, as
Merrimack tallied 23 points off turnovers and eight points off fast
breaks.
Duncan needs 31 more points to reach 1,000 in his career.
Merrimack (3-0, 1-0 NE-10) is at UMass Lowell Saturday at 4 p.m.