The Merrimack men’s basketball team, currently leading the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), will host Marist on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Lawler Arena in North Andover, Massachusetts.
Merrimack holds a 12-2 record in conference play and is 16-9 overall this season, riding a four-game winning streak. Marist enters the matchup with a 16-8 overall record and stands at 10-5 in the MAAC.
According to the program, “The Warriors have the best MAAC conference record since joining the league last season, with a 26-8 conference record, ahead of Quinnipiac (25-10) and Marist (23-12) for the best record over the last two seasons. For the 29th time in 36 MAAC games, the Warriors enter a contest in first place in the conference standings.”
In their most recent outing, Merrimack defeated Rider 73-47. Tye Dorset led scoring with 18 points, making seven of eight field goals and converting both three-point attempts. Ernest Shelton contributed 15 points while Kevair Kennedy added 14. Andrés Marrero finished with 10 points as Merrimack secured its fourth consecutive win and sixth victory in its last seven games.
When these teams met earlier this season on January 19, Merrimack won at Marist by a score of 68-55. In that game, Kennedy scored 20 points, Shelton had 18, and Dorset added another 17.
Kennedy has emerged as a top contender for both MAAC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors. He has been named MAAC Rookie of the Week four times and leads all players in conference games with an average of 19.7 points per game. Overall this season he is third in scoring across all games with an average of 17.3 points per game. Kennedy has reached double-digit scoring figures in all but one collegiate appearance—including each of his past twenty-three games—and ranks among league leaders for assists (4.0 per game) and steals (1.8 per game). He has scored at least twenty points five times over his last seven outings.
Shelton, who played alongside Kennedy at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia before transferring from Gannon University, is second on Merrimack’s roster with an average of 16.2 points per game—sixth highest among MAAC players this year. He has posted double-digit point totals in twenty-two out of twenty-five contests so far and made multiple three-pointers in most appearances.
The Warriors have won ten out of their past twelve games overall and fourteen out of their last seventeen contests dating back further into their schedule. They remain unbeaten at home (8-0) and are undefeated when scoring seventy or more points this season (10-0). The team also ranks second within its conference for turnover margin (+2.60).
Defensively, Merrimack’s zone approach continues to limit opponents’ offensive production; only four teams have managed more than sixty-six points against them over their last seventeen matchups, while six opponents were held to sixty-one or fewer across nine recent games—including five out of six most recently played.
Over recent weeks Merrimack has consistently limited opposing teams’ scoring relative to those teams’ seasonal averages: “Merrimack has held four of its last five opponents—Marist (-17.5), Iona (-13.4), Saint Peter’s (-13.2), Sacred Heart (-17.0) and Rider (-19.1)—well below their season average.” The Warriors are holding teams to an average of just over sixty-two points per contest during their past fifteen outings.
Tye Dorset continues to be productive offensively as well; he averages nearly thirteen points per game during league play and has achieved double figures seven times over his previous nine appearances while extending his streak to seven consecutive games with a made three-pointer.
