Women's Basketball Wins First Conference Contest at Saint Michael's
COLCHESTER, VT – Bouncing back from an 11-point halftime
gap, the Merrimack women's basketball Warriors won their
first Conference contest of the year at Saint Michael's
College Saturday afternoon at the Vincent C. Ross Sports Center,
75-70.
"I'm just real happy for our team because they finally got a
positive result from all the hard work they've been putting in,"
said head coach Helen Williams following the
contest. "We showed great heart coming from behind and I'm
very proud of them."
Junior Sarah Benischek (Shrub Oak, NY) carried
the scoring load for Merrimack with a career and game-high 21
points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. Junior Tiffany
Colon (Lawrence, MA) tallied a double-double on the
afternoon (10 points, 12 rebounds), while senior captain
Casey Miller (Fairbanks, AK) scored 12 points, all
of which were in the second half.
With Miller's 12 points, she needs just 25 to reach the 1,000-point mark in
her career at Merrimack.
Despite falling behind 9-0 to start the game, sophomore Genn Roy
(Granby, MA) scored the Warriors first four points to end the
Purple Knights run. Roy would end the half with eight points, but
seven threes from Saint Michael's pushed the home
team's advantage to 38-27.
Facing an 11-point margin at the break, Merrimack ran off a 21-7
run to start the second half, giving the Warriors their first lead
of the game, 46-45, on a pair of free throws from Colon. After
relinquishing the lead, the Warriors took a 58-54 lead on a
Benischek three-pointer with seven minutes to play.
Merrimack would stretch the lead to ten (64-54) with
back-to-back Saint Michael's turnovers and breakaway Miller
lay-ups with five minutes to play in the game. With Miller scoring
11 points in the second half, Merrimack capitalized on 21 Saint
Michael's turnovers to score as many points, including eight
on the fast break.
With the Purple Knights threatening, the Warriors connected on
nine free throws in the final two minutes to stave off Saint
Michael's.
Although Caitlin Quinn scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting from
three-point range for Saint Michael's, Merrimack used a 30-16
advantage in the paint to seal the win.
With the win, the Warriors improved to 2-6 (1-4 NE-10) on the
year to begin their six-game stretch away from North Andover. Saint
Michael's falls to 2-4 (1-4 NE-10) on the season.
The Warriors return to action on Tuesday, December 8 at Southern
New Hampshire University at 5:30pm as the second leg of their
six-game road trip.
