BOX
SCORE
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Darin Mency was 4-5 behind the
arc and totaled 23 points to lead Merrimack College to a 101-92
Northeast-10 men's basketball victory over Southern New Hampshire
University at the SNHU Fieldhouse Tuesday night. The
Warriors, the preseason favorite in the NE-10, improved to 5-3
overall and 4-2 in the league, while the Penmen are now 3-4 and 2-4
in NE-10 play.
Mency was 9-15 from the floor
overall and one of four Warriors in double figures. Wayne
Mack and Darren Duncan each finished with 22 points, with Duncan
also handing out 11 assists. Craig Woehnker added 11 points
for Merrimack off the bench.
Stephen Wood
(South Jamaica Queens, N.Y.) led Southern New Hampshire with a
career-high 33 points on 14-18 shooting, while also grabbing 12
rebounds and registering three steals. Tory
Stapleton (Rahway, N.J.) finished with 16 points on 8-12
shooting, while Hanell Velez (Woburn, Mass.) added
11 points, knocking down three of his five three-point
attempts. Greg DeSantis (Trumbull, Conn.)
handed out eight assists and also scored six points.
SNHU trailed 50-43 at halftime but
scored the first five points of the second half to make it 50-48 on
a three by DeSantis. Merrimack led 58-55 with 15:44 left when
it went on a 13-4 run to take a 71-59 lead with 12:49 to play on a
three by Mency. The Warriors took their largest lead of the
game, 85-68, with 7:43 to go on a three by Woehnker.
The Penmen used a 12-4 spurt to cut
the Warrior lead to nine, 89-80, with just under five minutes to go
on a layup by Wood. Southern New Hampshire would continue to
chip away at the lead and a basket by Wood with 47 seconds
remaining made it 98-92, but the Penmen would get no closer.
In a first half that saw four ties
and 14 lead changes, Merrimack opened up an 18-13 lead 4:23 into
the game following a three by Duncan. Southern New Hampshire
held a 38-36 lead with 4:33 left in the first half following a
basket by Lucas Croteau (Rochester, N.H.), but the
Warriors would use a late 11-0 spurt to build a 50-40 lead
following a Woehnker basket. Josh
Morgan-Green (Upper Marlboro, Md.) cut the lead to seven
at halftime with his three-pointer at the buzzer.
Merrimack shot a blistering 61.4%
from the floor overall and knocked down 12 of its 18 (66.7%)
three-point attempts on the evening, while also going 19-25 at the
free throw line. The Penmen were 18-36 from the floor in both
halves, but were just 9-26 behind the arc, while also making nine
fewer trips to the free throw line, going 11-16. The Penmen
held a slight 33-32 rebounding advantage.
Southern New Hampshire returns to
action Sunday when it hosts Saint Leo University in a
non-conference game at 1:00.
