Pace Rides Hot Shooting Past Women's Basketball, 83-71, Wednesday Night
Links: Box Score
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College women's basketball team ran into a red-hot Pace Setters squad, as Pace raced past the Warriors, 83-71, on Wednesday evening for their sixth consecutive victory.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 71 | Pace 83
Records: Merrimack (8-5, 4-4 NE-10) | Pace (8-6, 3-4 NE-10)
Location: Hammel Court | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
In the first half, both teams shot the lights out of the gym, with the Setters finding success from three-point range. Pace entered the game shooting 35 percent as a team from three-point range.
Pace started the game on a 6-0 run over the first six minutes, causing the Warriors to burn their first timeout of the game. Merrimack answered with a couple of baskets and the score read, 8-4, with 15:56 on the clock.
Over the next five minutes, the Setters would stretch their lead to nine points, 18-9, with 12:37 left after a Margo Hackett three-pointer, one of 10 makes from distance for the Setters in the first half. Merrimack would answer though, as the Warriors went on an 8-0 run highlighted by five points from Caitlyn Garger (Hicksville, N.Y.) to make it 18-17 with 10:48 left in the first stanza.
Four minutes later, Garger hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 27-all, but this was where the Setters would grasp control of the contest. Pace hit consecutive three-pointers and a layup to scamper on an 8-0 run to separate themselves from the Warriors. Merrimack would get no closer than four points over the remainder of the half, and the Setters entered the halftime with a 44-39 lead.
The theme of the game was Pace knocking down threes. Forward Aria Johnson (Los Osos, Calif.) hit a layup to make a three-point game early in the second half, but the Setters answered with back-to-back makes from distance to build a 54-45 advantage.
The lead for Pace would hover around nine points from the 15-minute mark of the second half to the 7:24 mark of the final frame. At that point, Hackett nailed a three to stretch the lead to double digits, 69-57.
With less than five minutes to go and trailing by 10 points, Merrimack scored five of the next six points to make it 77-71 with 2:02 to go. On the next inbounds, Merrimack forced a turnover, but could not convert the extra possession into points, allowing the Setters to ice the contest, 83-71.
Merrimack now has lost consecutive games for only the second time this season, dropping to 4-4 in the Northeast-10
Inside The Numbers
- The Warriors allowed 44 first-half points, the second most Merrimack has allowed in the opening 20 minutes all season long. Pace connected on 10-of-16 threes in the first stanza, shooting 55 percent as a team from the field
- Garger scored 17 first-half points seemingly keeping the Warriors in the game by herself. That total was one off her season high, which she set by adding two points in the second half
- Pace didn't have the quantity of three-pointers in the second half that they did in the first half, but the Setters finished 13-of-21 from beyond the arc, good for nearly 60 percent shooting
- Four Warriors finished in double figures, with Garger leading the way. Off the bench, Allison Wagner (Center Conway, N.H.) posted 14 points, while Johnson and Chloe Rothman (Newton, Mass.) also contributed in double digits
- Merrimack hurt themselves on the defensive end, allowing the Setters to shoot 30-of-53 from the field (56.6 percent). That percentage is the highest Merrimack has allowed this season and the first time an opponent has finished a game shooting better than 50 percent
Up Next
Merrimack has six days off before the Warriors hit the road to take the College of Saint Rose at 5:30 p.m. in Albany, N.Y.
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