Kelsey Simonds anchors a defense that is allowing only 53.4 points per game.

North Easton, Mass. - Sporting their highest national ranking of the season, the No. 13 Skyhawks return to the hardwood for a Thursday evening road matchup with a 4-11 Merrimack team that sits in last place in the Northeast-10 with a 0-9 conference mark.

The Warriors do feature the Conference's seventh leading scorer in Amanda Shannon, who set a career-high with 29 points in a 68-61 loss to Pace on Saturday. She is scoring 15.3 points a game and her 2.2 steals a contest rank ninth in the league.

One place where Merrimack struggles is its field goal percentage, ranking last in the Northeast-10 at 34 percent. The Skyhawks on the other hand rank second in field goal percentage defense (34 percent),  are first in points allowed (53.4) and are the league's third-highest scoring team (68.9).

Only one team has eclipsed the 70-point barrier against Stonehill this season, and it took UMass-Lowell two overtimes to do so, while the Warriors haven't cracked 70 points since late November.

The Skyhawks are paced by junior Kelsey Simonds (Middleboro, Mass.), who is averaging 16.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a game all the while leading the Northeast-10 in field goal percentage (56 percent).

Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine), the Conference's leader in assists, is also fourth in the Northeast-10 in assist-to-turnover ratio. Her 102 assists in just 13 games are 14 more than her closest competitor, Bryant's Lynne-Ann Kokoski, who has played in two more contests.

Bethany Tighe (North Easton, Mass.) had success against the Warriors last season, grabbing 11 rebounds in a 81-64 win at Merrimack, and scoring 15 points in the 77-65 regular season win at home. Averaging 10.9 points and 7.9 boards a game, Tighe is the Conference's second leading free throw performer, connecting on better than 86 percent of her attempts.

After being swept by Merrimack during the 2004-05 season, the Skyhawks have run off five straight wins against the Warriors, including all three meeting a season ago. Overall, Stonehill holds a 53-7 lead in the all-time series.