Women's Basketball Grinds Out 58-50 NE-10 Win vs. Saint Michael's Wednesday
Links: Box Score
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Senior forward Savannah Johnson (Palmdale, Calif.) swatted away a career-high six shots and the Merrimack College women's basketball team allowed just 50 points in the Warriors' 58-50 Northeast-10 Conference victory on Wednesday night over visiting Saint Michael's. The Navy and Gold improved to 2-1 in NE-10 play, while the Purple Knights fell to 3-1 in league action.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 58, Saint Michael's 50
Records: Merrimack (3-4, 2-1 NE-10) | Saint Michael's (3-3, 3-1 NE-10)
Location: Hammel Court | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
- Merrimack started the night on a 5-0 run, featuring four points from sophomore Lexi Martin (Franklin, Mass.). The Purple Knights answered with a 10-2 run over the next 3:37 of action to take a 10-7 lead with under three minutes left in the quarter
- Sophomore Lindsay Werner (Groton, Mass.) nailed her first 3-pointer at the 1:53 mark to the tie the game. She entered the night coming off her record-breaking nine triples on Sunday against Massachusetts. Each team traded two points over the remainder of the quarter, finishing the first quarter tied 12-all
- The Purple Knights started the second frame with six straight points to pull ahead, 18-12. Sophomore Karlee Alves (Ellington, Conn.) ended the scoring drought at the 6:13 mark with a jumper
- The Warriors chipped away, ending the half on a 10-3 run to take a three-point lead into halftime. Martin forced a steal and went coast-to-coast to tie the game at 22-all. Two possessions later, the second-year wing battled for an offensive rebound before finding Johnson for the go-ahead lay-in. Werner hit a pull-up jumper on the last possession of the opening stanza, making it 26-23 Warriors after 20 minutes
- After a slow start to the third – the program's combined for just 13 points over the first seven minutes – the Navy and Gold played their best in the final minutes of the quarter. Sophomore Hannah Neild (Litchfield, N.H.) hit her first trey of the night to put Merrimack ahead, 33-32.
- With under one minute to play, Werner made a triple of her own and freshman Denia Davis-Stewart (Dorchester, Mass.) hit a buzzer-beating put back to make it 38-34 Warriors entering the fourth
- The Purple Knights took the lead back over the first six minutes of the fourth, building a 46-42 advantage with 4:09 remaining. Senior captain My'Asia Alston (Cohoes, N.Y.) and her co-captain Johnson hit layups on consecutive posessions to cap off a 6-0 run, making it 48-46 Warriors with two minutes left
- Over the final 69 seconds, Alston and Neild combined to go 10-of-10 from the free-throw line, preventing the visitors from completing any sort of comeback. Neild's final two points swished in with six seconds left, capping off the 58-50 victory
Inside The Numbers
- Sitting the first seven minutes of the third quarter due to foul trouble, Alston came on to play a strong fourth quarter. She scored eight of her 10 points on the night in the final frame, all of which came in the final five minutes. The second-year point guard made all six of her free throws during that stretch
- Johnson's six-block night brought her season total to 16 over seven games, leading the Warriors with 2.3 per contest. The second-year forward and first-year captain ranks second in the NE-10 in rejections through seven games
- Werner led the Warriors in scoring with 12 points off the bench, her fifth straight double-figure output. With Alston in foul trouble, Alves played in a season-high 22 minutes totaling four points, three rebounds and two steals
- Merrimack's bench continued to perform well. Davis-Stewart combined with Werner and Alves to record 22 points compared to just nine from the Purple Knights' reserves
- In addition to nearly collecting her second double-double of the year (8 pts, 8 reb), Martin drew the defensive effort on Leah Spencer - Saint Michael's leading scorer and fourth overall in the NE-10 - and limited Spencer to 2-of-14 shooting and a season-low five points
- Field Goals (%): MER 20-48 (41.7) // SMC 20-59 (33.9)
- 3-Point Field Goals (%): MER 4-12 (33.3) // SMC 3-12 (25.0)
Up Next
League play continues for the Warriors on Saturday afternoon when Merrimack heads to Manchester, N.H. for a date with Saint Anselm at 1:30 p.m. from Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
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