Men’s Basketball Edged by Southern N.H. 77-73

Boxscore

MANCHESTER, NH – The Merrimack men’s basketball team shot just 7-for-31 in the second half losing to Southern New Hampshire 77-73 Wednesday night at the SNHU Fieldhouse.

Merrimack falls to 15-6 overall, 11-5 in the Northeast-10 with its second straight loss. The Warriors host UMass Lowell Saturday at 3 p.m. in a big matchup at the Volpe Gym. Lowell, who fell to Merrimack 85-79 earlier this season, lost to Bentley 70-68 tonight in a showdown for first place.

The Warriors grabbed their first lead midway through the first half after a three from Craig Woehnker (Colts Neck, NJ) which capped off a streak of nine straight points from the visitors. After a jumper from the Penmen, Darin Mency (Hagerstown, MD) took a feed from Darren Duncan (Briarwood, NY) for a lay-in, Roland Davis (Deer Park, NY) hit a three, and Mency followed with another three giving the Warriors the 30-22 lead after the 17-2 run. Jared Brownlee (Portland, ME) and Wayne Mack (Paterson, NJ) followed with field goals of their own forcing the Penmen’s second timeout in two minutes as Merrimack’s lead reached double digits at 34-24.

Behind 12 points and five rebounds from Mency, Merrimack took a 48-38 lead into the locker room at halftime and shot 61% from the field on 20-of-33 shooting. Davis tallied 11 points while Chris Winters (East Lyme, CT) added nine points and four boards as he returned to the starting lineup after missing most of the last three games with an injury.

The second half was a different story as the Warriors managed just one point in the first 7:07 and just seven in the first 13:27. The Penmen scored 16 of the first 24 points of the half to tie the game at 56 with 6:33 to play after a layup from Troy Bowen. With 5:21 left, Bowen hit another jumper, giving the Penmen the 60-58 lead.

But Merrimack didn’t quit as Mency found Davis, who drained a three tying the game at 61 with 4:30 remaining. After two free throws from Brownlee, the Warriors erased a five-point deficit to even the score again, this time at 68.

Tory Stapleton then responded with a field goal, and Duncan made just one of two free throws to cut the Penmen lead to one. But Steven Wood responded for the hosts pushing the lead back to three. After Stapleton traded a lay-up with two free throws from Duncan with 1:04 to play, Cory Vejraska hit a three to seal the second half comeback for the Penmen.

Davis led the Warriors with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while Duncan added 19 points and six assists. Mency was scoreless in the second half as was Winters. Merrimack shot just 22.6% from the field in the second half.

The Penmen (11-10, 7-9 NE-10) shot 57% from the field, led by 21 from Wood. Gerald Carter added 16 while Bowen finished with fifteen.

Earlier Wednesday, the Warriors dropped to fifth in the second edition of the NCAA Division II East Regional Rankings behind C.W. Post, Bentley, Lowell and Stonehill. Merrimack is a combined 1-4 against the schools ahead of them.