Merrimack Men’s Basketball Improves to 3–0 in MAAC Play With Win at Sacred Heart

Jack Lawhorne – Student Reporter

Fairfield, CT – The Merrimack men’s basketball team returned to the hardwood Monday afternoon following a 2-week Christmas recess for their third MAAC contest of the season, this time at the Pitt Center vs. Sacred Heart.

1st Half

The Warriors came out of the gates with an 8–0 flurry as they hit their first three shots, two of which came from three-point range.

At the same time, Merrimack defended well. The Warriors’ third early steal on the day led to Kevair Kennedy knocking down MC’s third early triple.

Less than three minutes in, the Warriors led 13–2 and forced a SHU timeout.

After an uneventful three-minute period of technical difficulties on the ESPN+ stream, Todd Brogna and Tye Dorset each added to the three-point barrage with treys of their own to extend the MC lead to 19–6.

While the Warriors average eight three-pointers per game on the season, they hit that number before the game even hit the eight-minute mark of the first half. Because of that, Merrimack controlled the entire first half, leading by as much as 13.

While the Pioneers closed the early gap as a result of the Warriors going scoreless from 7:04 to 3:12 of the first period, MC still found themselves up 38–32 at half.

The Pioneers dominated on the glass (21–12) and even shot more efficiently than MC from all three levels (FG%, 3PT%, FT%), despite the Warriors shooting well. But Merrimack’s disruptive zone defense made chaos and flustered the SHU offense all half. MC turned SHU over 9 times and only turned it over 4 times themselves. Most importantly, where the Warriors really won the first half was with their prolific three-point shooting — 9–21 vs. SHU's 5–11.

Andres Marrero led the Warriors with 14 points, knocking down 4 of Merrimack’s 9 three pointers. He also added 2 assists and 2 steals.

“Obviously we were fortunate to get out to that great start,” said Merrimack Head Coach Joe Gallo at halftime. “We made some shots, we were defending early, but these guys are never going to go away. We’ve played them I think 14 times now over the last 5-6 years. These are games of runs, and it’s usually whoever has the last one wins.”

2nd Half

Out of the break, Tye Dorset scored on consecutive trips, and the Warriors fed off of that momentum. MC started the second half on a 10–2 run and jumped out to a 13-point lead, 48–35.

But as Gallo said at half, these are games of runs, especially in the conference. SHU responded to Merrimack’s maraud with two threes of their own, one of which being a 4-point play.

But Kevair Kennedy took over briefly, converting on a layup before stealing the ball on defense and turning it into another bucket.

With 14:40, KC Ugwuakazi pulled down MC’s fifth offensive rebound of the day to go back up double digits.

Two minutes later, after SHU went on a run to cut the MC lead to 5, Ugwuakazi secured another offensive rebound and scored through a foul for a massive three-point play. And the Warriors rode the momentum, as Ernest Shelton drew a foul on a three-point attempt and knocked down all three at the line.

Then, Dylan Veillette came up with a big block on defense and turned it into a score on the other end.

Just like that, MC tied their largest lead of the game at 13.

The Warriors would hold onto a double-digit lead until Nyle Ralph-Beyer hit two big threes to cut Merrimack’s lead back to five with five minutes to go.

But Shelton answered with a huge three of his own, and Merrimack closed out the game by continuing to make shots. Dorset knocked down a triple, Shelton scored again on a layup, and Ugwuakazi ended it with a thunderous slam dunk.

The Warriors improve to 7–7 overall and 3–0 in MAAC play on the season, and will continue conference play in the new year on Friday, January 2, 2026 at home vs. Mount St. Mary’s before taking on Manhattan Sunday, January 4.