Merrimack Beats ST. Francis of Brooklyn in Conference play, 65-53

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Conference play has begun in the Northeast Conference and on Saturday afternoon, the Merrimack College Warriors played host to the St. Francis of Brooklyn Terriers. Both teams came into this affair with losses from earlier this week. For the Terriers, they were trying to snap a two-game skid. The series between the two has gone Merrimack’s way as the Warriors have won five of the previous six and three in a row.

As has been the case so far this season, the Warriors frontcourt duo of Jordan Minor and Ziggy Reid were making their presence felt scoring four of the Warriors’ first nine points. They had a three-point lead at the first media timeout at 9-6. The only problem for Merrimack was Reid getting into early foul trouble with two quick ones. The Warriors built an early ten-point lead at 18-8 on the strength of points off the bench from a pair of freshmen, Jordan Derkack and Devon Savage who combined to score five off head coach Joe Gallo’s bench. They would increase the lead to thirteen at 26-13 on good shooting at 58% and turning over the Terriers. Turnovers also became a problem for St. Francis as they had 10 in the first 16+ minutes of the first half. That led to 13 Warriors points which with 3:46 left in the half was the difference. A late run by the Terriers of 10-4 made this a three-point game at the half. It was Merrimack 37 and St. Francis 34. Larry Moreno had five points in the late first-half run.

Merrimack shot 56% from the field (14-of-25) in the first half. The second twenty minutes have been a bit of a problem this season. St. Francis took the lead a little over a minute into the second half. A layup by Syrus Grisby gave the Terriers a 38-37 lead with 18:07 left in the game. Merrimack regained the lead at 41-38 on a pair of baskets by Minor and Bennett. With 15:51 left Merrimack was back in front. A big three-pointer by Savage gave the Warriors some breathing room at 48-40 with 11:26 left. Merrimack pushed the lead back to thirteen at 53-40. It reached its highest at fifteen on a pair of Minor free throws to make it 55-40 with 8:45 left. St. Francis received some life off of a three-point made by Tedrick Wilcox that cut the Merrimack lead to nine at 55-46 with 6:48 to go. Back-to-back inside baskets by Larry Moreno brought the lead back under double figures at 59-50 with 4:42 to play. Minor continued to be a force in the paint, scoring even when doubled or sometimes triple-teamed. His 22-point and eight-rebound effort made him one of only two Warriors players in double figures. The other was Jordan Derkack who had 10 points off the bench. St. Francis was led by D’Andre Howell-South with 13 points and Larry Moreno with 11. Merrimack’s defense did a solid job on Rob Higgins who was the Terriers leading scorer. On this day, he was held to two points on 1-of-9 shooting and 0-of-4 from three. Merrimack gets the win 65-53 and improves to 4-14, 2-2 in the league. St. Francis falls to 6-9 and 0-3 in the league. They have now lost their last three in a row.