The Merrimack men’s basketball team, currently leading the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), will play against Quinnipiac, the two-time defending MAAC regular season champion, on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Hamden, Connecticut.
Merrimack has recorded a 27-8 conference record since joining the MAAC last season. This is the best record in the league over the past two seasons, surpassing Quinnipiac’s 25-11 and Marist’s 23-13 records. The Warriors have been in first place for 30 out of their last 36 conference games.
Kevair Kennedy led Merrimack to victory over Marist on Thursday with 22 points, marking his sixth game with more than 20 points in his last eight appearances. Tye Dorset added 15 points, Andres Marrero scored 13, and Ernest Shelton contributed 12 points. The win was Merrimack’s fifth consecutive.
In their previous matchup on January 17 at Lawler Arena, Merrimack defeated Quinnipiac with Kennedy scoring a career-high 23 points.
Kennedy is in contention 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 19.8 points per game. Across all games, he ranks second in scoring at 17.5 points per game and has reached double figures in scoring in 25 of his 26 collegiate games, including a streak of 24 straight games. Kennedy also leads Merrimack and is fourth in the conference with an average of 4.2 assists per game, while ranking fourth in steals at 1.9 per game.
Ernest Shelton, who played high school basketball alongside Kennedy at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia, is second on the team and sixth in the conference with an average of 16.1 points per game. Shelton transferred from Gannon University and has scored at least 20 points six times this season while making a three-pointer in every game so far.
Merrimack has won seven of its last eight games and holds a record of 15-3 over its past eighteen contests. The Warriors are undefeated at home (9-0) and have posted a strong road record (5-2) within conference play. They are also unbeaten when scoring at least seventy points this season and rank second in turnover margin (+2.65) among MAAC teams.
The team’s zone defense has limited opponents’ scoring opportunities; Merrimack has allowed more than sixty-six points only four times over its last eighteen games and held teams to sixty-one or fewer points seven times during its past ten outings.
Merrimack recently held five out of six opponents well below their season averages: Marist by seventeen-and-a-half points, Iona by thirteen-point-four, Saint Peter’s by thirteen-point-two, Sacred Heart by seventeen, Rider by nineteen-point-one, and Marist again by seventeen points under their usual output. Over its last fifteen games, Merrimack has held opponents to an average of sixty-two points per contest.
Tye Dorset is averaging nearly thirteen points per game during conference play and has scored double figures in eight out of his last eleven games while making a three-pointer in seven consecutive matches.
