ALBANY - Merrimack College limited The College of Saint Rose men's basketball team to a season-low 28.1 percent (9-for-32) shooting from the floor in the first half to win its 14th Northeast-10 Conference game of the year on the strength of an 85-54 win against the host Golden Knights on “Senior Night” at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium. The Warriors (18-7/14-6 NE-10) last reached the aforementioned plateau during the 1990-91 campaign.

Saint Rose (11-14/9-11 NE-10) managed only four field goals throughout the first 11:10, thus allowing Merrimack to race out to a 32-8 advantage with 8:50 left in the first period. Back-to-back layups by freshman forward Brian Hanuschak silenced the jaunt for the Golden Knights, but sophomore guard Darin Mency answered with a 3-pointer and junior guard Darren Duncan converted a pair of free throws to boost the Warriors margin to 26, 38-12, with 6:11 to play.

Merrimack, which never trailed in the contest, connected on 6-of-12 shots from the arc and hit 45.7 percent (16-of-35) of its attempts throughout the opening 20 minutes to walk into the locker room up 48-21. The 48 first half points tied the season-high by a Saint Rose opponent and the Warriors got better in the second period, hitting at a 61.5 percent (16-for-26) clip while going 5-for-11 from deep.

The Golden Knights tried to whittle away at the deficit to begin the second half after burying three of their first five shots to make it a 23 point, 50-27, margin at the 17:26 mark. Junior forward Malcolm Williams put back his own miss, sophomore guard Ben Johnson finished in the paint and Williams made another layup for a quick 6-2 spurt. However, Duncan knocked down a “three” and then found Mency in the lane to erase any ideas of a Saint Rose comeback.

Junior guard Jermaine Clark led the Golden Knights with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. Williams and senior guard Josh Pelletier added 13 points apiece. Williams also pulled down eight boards.

Mency paced four Warriors in double-figures with a game-high 23 points behind a 9-for-12 effort from the floor. Duncan registered a “double-double” with 17 points and 12 assists, while freshman guard Roland Davis and junior guard Craig Woehnker had 10 points each.

Saint Rose will look to snap its three-game losing skid Saturday when the Golden Knights travel to Stonehill College for the first of their final two NE-10 regular-season road contests. Tip-off is set for 3:30 pm in Easton, MA. Merrimack is scheduled to return home Saturday when it hosts Southern Connecticut State University in a 3:00 pm start.

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