Manchester, N.H. (January 22) -- A late Saint
Anselm rally came up short as the Merrimack men's basketball team
defeated the Hawks by a 69-63 final on Tuesday night at
Stoutenburgh Gym. The victory is the 400th for Merrimack
head coach Bert Hammel, making him the 24th head
coach in NCAA Division II history to surpass the 400-win plateau.
Merrimack led from the outset as the Warriors built a 5-0 lead
before the Hawks got on the board on a jumper from Thomas
Baudinet (Watertown, Mass.) with 15:33 left. Leading 11-6,
the Warriors embarked on a 9-0 run over the next 1:57 to push the
lead to 11 at 20-9. Merrimack maintained the lead at seven points
until the final play of the first half when Chris Vetrano
(Andover, Mass.) drained a jumper from the corner as the
horn sounded to cut the lead to five at 32-27. The Hawks were led
by nine points from freshman John Tello (Ridgefield Park,
N.J.), while Chris Winters (East Lyme,
Conn.) led the Warriors with 10 first-half points.
Saint Anselm cut the lead down to three points twice in the
opening of the second half, including on a layup by Jeff
Dickson (Bedford, N.H.) to make it a 36-33 game with 16:27
to go. Merrimack answered with an 8-1 run over the next 2:17 and
after a three-pointer from Darren Duncan (Briarwood,
N.Y.), held a 44-34 lead. With the Warriors up 46-34, the
Hawks went on a 13-3 run to trim the lead down to 49-47 before a
three by Micky Burtnyk (Phoenix, Ariz.) pushed the
advantage back to 52-47 with 8:10 remaining.
The Hawks pulled back to within two at 54-52 after a jumper from
Baudinet, but the Warriors answered again with a 6-0 spurt and a
60-52 edge with 4:54 left. The Hawks moved back to within four
points with 24.4 seconds left after a Tello putback, but the
Warriors held on for the win in the 95th all-time meeting between
the two schools.
Tello led the Hawks with 15 points, followed by a 14-point
effort from Vetrano. Baudinet and Junior Mitchell
(Brooklyn, N.Y.) each chipped in with 10 points each.
Duncan led all scorers for Merrimack with a 21-point effort.
With the loss, the Hawks slip below .500 at 8-9 overall and 6-7
in the Northeast-10, while Merrimack improves to 11-7 overall and
6-7 in the Northeast-10. Saint Anselm is back in action on Saturday
afternoon as the Hawks host Assumption for a 3:30 p.m. start at
Stoutenburgh Gym.
