Men’s Basketball’s Winning Streak Snapped by Stonehill 79-75

Boxscore

EASTON, MA – The Merrimack men’s basketball team’s five-game winning streak was snapped by Stonehill College 79-75 Wednesday night at the Merkert Gym.

The Warriors were the last remaining undefeated team in the conference.

Merrimack trailed by 12 at the half as Stonehill shot 51% from the field in the first 20 minutes and controlled the boards, out rebounding the Warriors 31-11 in the first 20 minutes. Merrimack scored the first six points of the second half to cut the lead to five, but Stonehill responded with 13 of its own to take a 56-37 lead at 14:10 of the second.

After a three-pointer from Dan Heppert extended Stonehill’s lead to 11, back to back threes from Dee Mency (Hagerstown, MD) and Chris Winters (East Lyme, CT) cut the lead to five at 69-64 with 3:54 to play, marking the closest Merrimack was since early in the first half. But two missed threes by Mency, and another by Roland Davis (Deer Park, NY), and the Stonehill lead was still five with 2:05 to play in regulation. Mike Kernan then converted a jump shot and added one from the free throw line to push the lead to 72-65 with 1:35 to play. A Davis lay-in cut the Skyhawk lead to four at 76-72 with 17 seconds remaining. Mency then drained a late three with five seconds to play but that would be the final Warriors basket as the Skyhawks escaped with the 79-75 win.

Making his first collegiate start with Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) out with an injury, Davis had a career-high 22 points, including 17 in the first half. Darren Duncan (Briarwood, NY), who entered Wednesday’s game leading the conference in scoring and assists, tallied 25 points and eight assists. Mency added 18 on just 5-of-15 shooting.

Five Skyhawks were in double figures led by 15 from A.J. Rudowitz, who also tallied a game-high 14 rebounds. Kernan added 13 points and 12 boards.

Merrimack (5-1, 3-1 NE-10) visits AIC Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. game.