ALBANY, NY – The Merrimack men’s basketball team
continued its push for a first-round bye in the conference
tournament, winning its third straight game, 85-54 over the College
of Saint Rose Wednesday night.
The Warriors, with Stonehill and Assumption winning, remain in a
three-way tie for third place in the Northeast-10. The top four
teams will get first-round byes, while the fifth seed hosts a
first-round playoff game on Saturday February 28.
Merrimack (18-7, 14-6 NE-10) closes out the regular season with a
pair of home games against Southern Connecticut Saturday (3 p.m.)
and New Haven Tuesday (7:30 p.m.).
Sparked by an offensive outburst in the first 10 minutes, the
Warriors, ranked fifth in the east region, took an early 32-8 lead
behind 10 points and four assists from Darren Duncan
(Briarwood, NY) and six points and four boards from
Roland Davis (Deer Park, NY).
Merrimack took a 48-21 lead into the locker room, behind 14 points
and seven assists from Duncan, eight points and five boards from
Davis and 10 points from Dee Mency (Hagerstown,
MD). The Warriors forced 11 turnovers and held the Golden
Knights to just 28.1% shooting from the field and 25% from
three-point range
The visitors cruised in the second-half to an easy 31-point
win.
With his second free throw of the night, Duncan set the school
record for free throws made in a career, surpassing Paul
Neal’s record of 492. Duncan is within one of Neal’s
record of 650 career attempts.
The Preseason All-American and Cousy Award Finalist finished with
17 points and 12 assists for his third double-double of the season.
Mency registered 23 points and is now just 71 points away from
1,000 career in just his sophomore season. In his return to the
starting lineup, Chris Winters (East Lyme, CT)
added nine points, while Davis finished with 10 and seven rebounds.
Craig Woenhker (Colts Neck, NJ) also added 10
points to go with six boards.
The win is the 14th conference win of the season for the Warriors,
tying a school record set in the 1990-91 season.