The Merrimack men’s basketball team is preparing to host Iona on Sunday at 1 p.m., with the chance to secure the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Regular Season Championship outright. The game will also serve as Senior Day, honoring players Aliou Cisse, Malik Edmead, Brandon Legris, Andrés Marrero, and Jaylen Stinson.
Merrimack clinched a share of the MAAC title after a 79-72 overtime win against Siena in front of a sold-out crowd at Lawler Arena. Kevair Kennedy led the Warriors with a career-high 32 points—his eighth game scoring more than 20 points in his last ten outings. Ernest Shelton contributed five three-pointers and scored 17 points, while Tye Dorset added 13.
The Warriors have claimed four conference regular season championships within their seven years competing in Division I. With a victory over Iona on Sunday, Merrimack would win the MAAC title outright and give head coach Joe Gallo his fourth season with at least 20 wins.
Since joining the MAAC last season, Merrimack has posted a league-best conference record of 29-8. This places them ahead of Quinnipiac (26-11) and Marist (24-14) for the top record over the past two seasons. The Warriors have been in first place entering 32 out of their last 38 MAAC games.
Iona remains the only team in the MAAC that head coach Joe Gallo has yet to defeat.
Kevair Kennedy is positioned to potentially earn both MAAC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors this season. He recently received both Player and Rookie of the Week awards from the conference and has now been named Rookie of the Week five times. Kennedy leads all scorers in the league with an average of 18.3 points per game overall and increases that average to 20.8 during conference play. He has scored double figures in all but one collegiate game—including each of his last twenty-six—and also leads Merrimack in assists (4 per game), ranking fifth in that category across the conference, as well as fourth in steals (1.9 per game).
Ernest Shelton is second on Merrimack’s roster and sixth among all MAAC players with an average of sixteen points per game. A transfer from Gannon University who played high school basketball alongside Kennedy at Philadelphia’s Father Judge High School, Shelton has scored twenty or more points six times this season and reached double digits in twenty-four out of twenty-seven games played so far. He has made at least one three-pointer every game this year and connected on nine threes over his last three contests.
The Warriors are currently riding a seven-game winning streak; they have won nine out of their last ten matchups and are seventeen-and-three over their most recent twenty games played. Merrimack holds an undefeated home record this year at ten wins without loss—they could become only the second team since 1990-91 to finish perfect at home if they win Sunday.
When scoring seventy or more points, Merrimack is unbeaten this season (11-0). They rank second among all teams in steals per game (8.18) as well as turnover margin (+2.74).
Defensively, Merrimack’s “MakeChaos” zone defense continues to limit opponents’ production; they have allowed more than sixty-six regulation points only four times over their past twenty games while holding teams below sixty points three times out of their previous four contests—and six times across their last nine games.
“
