Merrimack Men's basketball Remains Undefeated in MAAC

Jack Lawhorne, Joey Motroni – Student Reporters

North Andover, MA – The Merrimack Warriors men’s basketball team (8–7, 4–0 MAAC) returned home to Lawler Arena Friday afternoon for a MAAC contest against Mount St. Mary’s. The Warriors come into this game with revenge on their minds after they were eliminated from the MAAC conference tournament by The Mount in their semi-final matchup last season.

MC entered Friday’s game with an opportunity to climb back above the .500 mark while also putting their undefeated MAAC record on the line.

The Warriors successfully avenged the Mountaineers in this one, staying undefeated in MAAC play and improving to 8–7 overall.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Early on, Mount St. Mary’s looked to attack with their size advantage, prompting KC Ugwuakazi to check in. Ugwuakazi came away with two offensive rebounds in his first spurt of minutes to go along with two blocked shots.

The first half featured a stop-and-start style of basketball with 19 combined fouls between the two teams.

Neither team was able to find a rhythm offensively.

The Warriors finished the half shooting 8-of-26, and the Mountaineers finished 8-of-30. MSM won the rebounding advantage (27–16, 10–4 OFF), while MC won the turnover battle (7–3). Merrimack took a narrow lead into the break after Ernest Shelton knocked down two free throws in the final seconds of the first half.

“Good old fashioned rock fight in the first half,” said Merrimack Head Coach Joe Gallo post-game. “Second half I thought we played offense with more force — we were cutting harder, moving it, driving it.”

A 15–7 MC run to begin the second half extended the Warriors’ halftime advantage to double-digits and prompted a Mount timeout with 13:46 to play.

“Like coach said, I thought we started off a little flat in the first half, but eventually we picked it up in the second half and got it going — we drove and cut stronger,” said Merrimack’s leading scorer Kevair Kennedy, who finished with 24 points on just 12 attempts from the field.

The Warriors did a large deal of their damage at the foul line, converting 31 of a staggering 40 attempts. Kennedy shot 11-of-15 on free throws, while Ernest Shelton went a perfect 11-of-11.

An early-half facial injury to KC Ugwuakazi called for increased Dylan Veillette minutes in which he impressed mightily, contributing to the lead on both ends of the court. Out of the Mount timeout, Veillette continued to make his presence down low felt as he drew an offensive foul. Veillette would finish the afternoon with 5 points and 4 blocks.

The Mountaineers were careless with the ball in the second half, turning the ball over 6 times in the first nine minutes of the period.

But eventually, the Warriors began to turn it over themselves, and MSM climbed back into it — getting the deficit down to as much as 5 multiple times.

When asked how the Warriors were able to maintain control and pull out the win, Coach Gallo credited a few things: “I just think from experience, now that we’re 15 games in… early on, if that was South Dakota St., we’d never been in that situation. Now we have. Our last game vs. Sacred Heat was very similar, we kind of led wire to wire but they made a run or two to get it to five.”

“I also think we have a lot of guys that can score the ball, that can make plays, and we’re not just reliant on just one person to do all the work,” Gallo added. “In some years past, we had Budd Clark, Jordan Derkack, Juvaris Hayes — where if you got the ball out of that guy’s hands, you might be in trouble. But I tell these guys, every person to the left or right of you can make a play, so if you feel some pressure, or if you get two on the ball, you can get the ball out of your hands and anybody else can make a play for us.”

The Warriors now face a quick turnaround as they are set to take on the Jaspers of Manhattan University Sunday afternoon for a noon tip-off at Lawler Arena.