Merrimack College Four Game Win Streak Snapped by St. Francis, 62-46

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Over the course of a season, a team will play a really bad game. It stands to reason that over a thirty-game schedule there is one you just can’t wait to forget. On Saturday afternoon, that game took place for the Merrimack College Warriors (8-9, 4-1) as they fell hard to the St. Francis Red Flash (5-11, 1-4) 62-46. Needless to say, this was not the way the Warriors wanted to start a four-game homestand. Especially when you bring a four-game winning streak home with you. But such was the case on Saturday before a sparse crowd at Hammel Court.

It is hard to believe, but Merrimack started this game on fire hitting five of their first six shots. They began the game on an 8-0 run. St. Francis, on the other hand, missed their first six shots and turned the ball over too often. Sure signs of a team that was on a six-game losing streak that had not won a game in a month’s time. It took the Red Flash three minutes to score their first point of the game on a free throw by Mation Hargis (15 points) and took four and a half minutes for them to score their first field goal when Hargis took the ball to the basket for a layup. At the time that made it 11-3 Merrimack with 15:35 left in the half. From there it was all St. Francis. They would tie the game at 13-13 on a three-point make by Maxwell Land (13 points) as part of a 12-2 run by the Red Flash.

Land would give them their first lead of the game with another three-ball to make it 16-13 with 10:23 left in the half. While St. Francis was knocking down shots, the Warriors went ice cold. They would go through a stretch of making only 1-of-13 shots and go for almost ten minutes without a point. The Red Flash made it a double-digit game at the 7:27 mark on the third three-pointer of the half by Land. It was 23-13 Red Flash. St. Francis would finish the first half on a 28-3 run to take a 29-18 lead with them into the halftime break. After their hot start, Merrimack would score only seven points over the last 16 minutes of the first half.

The second half did not get much better for the Warriors. They started it 0-4 from the field and did not score their first basket until three minutes into it on a Mikey Watkins layup. St. Francis pushed the lead to twenty at 44-24 on a free throw by Hargis with 10:27 to play. Merrimack was never able to make any sort of a hard run to get them back into this one. The Red Flask used their size to their advantage all game long. Of note was the solid game off the bench from 6-10 Josh Cohen who had 12 points, and seven rebounds in 28 minutes of playing time.

Merrimack, as you might have guessed, had some ugly numbers that contributed to the loss. For the game, the Warriors were 3-23 from behind the arc (13%), and from the field, they were 17-58 (29%). Both teams turned the ball over a lot, St. Francis 19 times to the Warriors 17. Merrimack turnovers seemed to hurt a little more. This is one of those games you do not need to watch the film on because you already know how bad it was. Merrimack did get 11 points from Jordan Minor, and 13 from Malik Edmead. Both teams have quick turnarounds as St. Francis heads to Bryant for a Monday afternoon holiday game while Merrimack will play Mount St. Mary on Monday afternoon.