Skyhawks Head To High-Scoring Merrimack

Skyhawks Head To High-Scoring Merrimack
 

Randall Stallworth is averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 assists and 3.0 steals in his last two contests. 

North Easton, Mass. - Winners of five straight games, Stonehill takes its act on the road Thursday night for a meeting with the Northeast-10's highest scoring team, Merrimack. At 10-6 overall and 6-3 in Northeast-10 play, the Skyhawks sit in a tie for fourth place with Assumption in the Conference standings, but currently hold the tiebreaker over the Greyhounds courtesy of an earlier 71-57 win at Merkert Gymnasium.

Stonehill's last victory, a 91-83 double-overtime triumph over St. Michael's, saw Matt Hall (Springfield, Mass.) drain a corner three pointer to force a second extra period, and then proceed to score 10 of the team's 20 points in the final five minutes. Nick Smith (Colonia, N.J.) chipped in with a double-double of 20 points and a season-high 12 rebounds.

The Warriors enter the contest averaging 87.6 points per game and are led by the Conference's No. 2 scorers, in sophomore Darren Duncan and freshman Darin Mency. Both are scoring 19.2 points a night and Duncan is coming off of a career-high 35 point effort in a 102-87 win over UMass-Lowell on Tuesday. He also leads the Northeast-10 in assists at 7.3 helpers a night and is second in steals, collecting 2.3 every time out.

Mency meanwhile, has been named Northeast-10 Rookie of the Week four times already this season, including this past week when he averaged 23.5 points and 8.5 rebounds.

On the inside for the Warriors is Olatungie Lightfoot-Taylor, who is averaging a shade less than 10 points a game at 9.9 and is Merrimack's leading rebounder at 7.6 a game. Lightfoot-Taylor, is second in the Conference in free throw accuracy, making 90 percent of his attempts.

Randall Stallworth (Toms River, N.J.), coming off of back-to-back double digit scoring efforts, is averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 assists and 3.0 steals in his last two contests, played a career-high 47 minutes in the win over the Purple Knights on Saturday and is fifth in the Conference in assists per game (4.6).

The game will feature three of the Northeast-10's best three point shooters in Stonehill's Smith and freshman Vince Rosario (Perth Amboy, N.J.) and the Warriors' Gerry Corcoran, who leads the Conference, connecting on 54 percent of his attempts from behind the arc. Smith has made the most triples of anyone in the league (42), while Rosario connects of 48 percent, including 15 makes in his last 25 attempts. Corcoran, who only sees about 12 minutes of game action a night, is coming off of a game that saw him make six-of-eight attempts and a performance before that, where he made five-of-10.

The Warriors 102 point effort at UMass-Lowell is only the second time a Northeast-10 team eclipsed the 100-point barrier this season. Stonehill reached triple digits in a 114-113 triple overtime loss to Columbus (Ga.) State on November 11.