Women's Hoops Edged by Saint Michael's on Senior Day
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.- The Merrimack women's basketball team dropped a 59-52 decision to Saint Michael's Saturday afternoon at Volpe Gym. The Warriors fall to 10-15 on the year and 8-13 in the Northeast-10. The Purple Knights improve to 14-10 overall and 12-9 in the league.
Prior to the game, Merrimack honored its four members of the class of 2011. Chelsea Shea (South Burlington, Vt.), Tiffany Colon (Lawrence, Mass.), Taneka Brown (Lynn, Mass.) and Sarah Benischek (Shrub Oak, N.Y.) were all recognized along with their families for their hard work and dedication to the program before playing in their final home game as a Warrior.
Gennifer Roy (Granby, Mass.) led the Warriors with 15 points on the afternoon while adding five assists. Valerie Avebe (Yaounde, Cameroon) posted her first collegiate double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Brown finished the game with nine points to her credit while Colon added seven.
Saint Michael's opened up a 6-2 lead after five minutes of action in the first half. Roy scored five consecutive points to push Merrimack ahead by one, 7-6, with 14 minutes left to play.
The Purple Knights utilized an 8-2 spell to reclaim the lead as they owned a 14-9 advantage at the midway point of the first frame.
A trey by Shea and a layup by Avebe cut the Warriors' deficit to one point, 15-14, with under nine minutes remaining in the opening period. Six-straight points by Saint Michael's extended its lead to seven, the largest of the half.
Merrimack began to chip away at the Purple Knights' advantage and ultimately knotted the score at 23-23 on a lay-in by Avebe with three minutes until intermission.
Each side scored four points in the final minute of the first half as the visitors clung to a two-point lead at the break, 31-29.
Roy paced the Warriors through the first period of play with nine points. Brown finished with seven points after 20 minutes of action. Merrimack shot 39% from the floor in the initial period while Saint Michael's connected on 46% of its field goal attempts.
The Purple Knights came out of the locker room and strung together a 10-0 run to grab a 41-29 lead after 5:30 had elapsed in the second half.
Capping off an 8-0 spell, Roy drained one of her three triples on the day with 8:34 remaining in the game to pull Merrimack to within six, 43-37.
With three minutes to go in the contest, the Warriors faced a three-point deficit after Avebe converted a layup to draw the score to 49-46.
Saint Michael's netted six-of-eight free throws in the final two minutes of play to seal the win.
The Warriors finished with a 30.3% field goal percentage while the Purple Knights shot 36.7% from the court for the game. The visiting squad held a narrow 44-41 margin on the rebounds despite Merrimack grabbing five more offensive boards on the afternoon.
"Our senior class has been a solid part of our team. They provide tons of leadership and experience and will be missed dearly," said head coach Helen Williams.
The Warriors close out the 2010-11 regular season on the road at Southern N.H. February 23.
