Merrimack defeats Stonehill 63-47 in Northeast Conference Play

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Heading into their Sunday afternoon game, Merrimack (10-10, 4-2) head coach Joe Gallo “challenged his team over the last two days” going into their home matchup with the Stonehill Hawks (2-19, 0-6). He talked about how Saturday’s practice was more like playing a game. The intense nature of those sessions may have helped his team to a 63-47 home-court win over the Hawks. Neither team played what you would call a great game. At times, both had problems putting the ball in the basket, especially from 3-point land where Merrimack was 11-of-41 for 26.8%. Stonehill was even worse shooting just 20%, 8-of-30. The game was sloppy at times as 32 total turnovers would suggest. In the end, the Warriors’ second-half defense and a willingness to take the ball to the basket against a 3-2 Hawks zone defense became the difference.

It also helps when your best player finds different ways to help his team win. Jordan Derkack did not have a great game. In fact, if he had the chance he would have said it was not even a good game by his standards. But like all good players, he found a way to impact the game in other ways. His 12 points, 11 assists effort tells part of the story. His shots were not falling. He was 3-of-13 from the field, 0-of-8 from 3-point land. Yet, with six minutes left in the game, Derkack had a shot at a rare triple-double. He finished just two rebounds short of that feat. He was also perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line. Good players understand how to be a difference-maker on the court. Derkack is one of those players.

The first half saw five ties and two lead changes. Merrimack went on an 8-0 run to open what would be their biggest lead of the first half at 16-4 with 15:48 to play in the first half. Back-to-back 3-point makes from Devon Savage (14 points) along with a fast break layup from Bryan Etumnu provided the offense. At this point, it looked like Merrimack might put this game away early. Then the Hawks went on a run that would allow them to erase the deficit and give Stonehill the lead. A 17-0 run saw Louie Semona score the first five points on a three and a layup in the paint. Later on in the run, a jumper from Max Zegarowski tied the game at 16-16 with 10:29 left in the half. Stonehill was not done, A three from Tony Felder who had five points in the run, gave the Hawks a 19-16 lead. They increased the lead to five at 21-16 on a basket from Todd Brogan. When asked about the run after the game Merrimack’s Devon Savage said “We were not worried, we just had to keep playing defense.” The Warriors retied the game on a Derkack dunk off an assist from Adam Clark. Then he got fouled shooting a three and made all of his foul shots to tie the game at 21-21 with 8:13 left in the half. The rest of the half was back and forth and the teams went to the locker room tied at 28-28.

Stonehill started the second half by scoring the first five points. Brogna was responsible for the scoring with a layup in the paint and then a 3-point shot. With 18:58 to go, Stonehill had a five-point lead, 33-28. Merrimack took care of that quickly with two free-throws from Etumnu and a 3-point play from Clark to tie the game at 34-34 with 17″00 minutes left. That would be the last time that the game would be tied as Merrimack took the game over. They outscored Stonehill 31-14 over the final seventeen minutes of the game. Warriors head coach Joe Gallo thought defensive pressure contributed. Stonehill turned the ball over 22 times for the game, 11 times in each half. The Warriors scored 15 points off of those mistakes. It turned a tight game into a 16-point win for Merrimack.

The other thing Gallo liked was the way his guards took care of the ball. They turned the ball over just twice in the entire half. Better shot selection and making the right plays proved to be the difference. They will need that as they begin a three-game road trip later this week. Their next home game is not until February 3rd vs Central Connecticut State.