Boxscore

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Senior guard Michelle Martinik (Monroe, Conn.) finished one assist shy of a triple-double, but still picked up a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds on Friday night as the No. 10 nationally ranked Southern Connecticut State University women's basketball team defeated Merrimack 83-58 in Northeast-10 Conference action at Moore Fieldhouse.

Senior forward Kate Lynch (Rumford, R.I.) scored a game-high 19 points to lead four Owls in double figures. Amanda Shannon led four Merrimack players in double digits with 13 points. With the win, SCSU improves to 7-2 (5-2 NE-10), while Merrimack falls to 2-8 (0-6 NE-10) with the loss.

The game featured much back-and-forth action early on with five ties and four lead changes over the opening 10 minutes. From there, SCSU opened up a 10-point lead on a 12-2 run over a span of just less than three minutes. The run featured four points from sophomore forward Jacqueline Johannes (Southbury, Conn.) and was punctuated by a fast-break layup from junior guard Lexi Allen (Southbury, Conn.) which gave the Owls a 25-15 lead with 7:49 left in the opening stanza.

Merrimack would answer with a 10-3 run of their own, including four points from Kara Borelli to shrink the lead to three points at 28-25 with 3:40 to play in the first half. From there, SCSU would score the final nine points of the first half, including five points from Lynch, to take a 37-25 lead into the halftime break.

Lynch led all scorers in the first half with nine points on three field goals, including a pair of three-pointers, and a free throw. Martinik led both teams with six first-half rebounds and had also dished out five assists and collected a pair of steals in the opening half.

For Merrimack, Gately Golden and Casey Miller led the way in the first half with six points each. Golden led the Warriors with three rebounds and also garnered two steals in the first period.

The Owls effectively put the game out of reach out of the gate in the second half. Over the first seven minutes, they extended their 9-0 run to a 25-6 run to take a 22 point lead at 53-31 with 13:19 to play. Lynch added seven more points early in the half to score 12 over the entire course of the run, which tallied over 11 minutes between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. Later in the second stanza, SCSU would get four points from freshman guard Logan Lentz (Chambersburg, Pa.) as seven Owls scored during a 15-2 run which gave SCSU its biggest lead of the game, 33 points at 83-50, with 1:04 to play.

For the game, Lynch led all scorers with 19 points on 7-for-16 field-goal shooting, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc, and 2-for-4 from the foul line. Senior guard Kaylie Schiavetta (Northport, N.Y.) tallied a career-high 16 points on 4-for-10 field-goal shooting and 6-for-8 from the charity stripe. Martinik added 11 points of her own, as she connected on six of nine free-throw attempts and shot 2-for-10 from the field. Lentz made it a quartet of double-digit scorers, as she scored 10 on 3-for-4 shooting, including 2-for-2 from three-point range. Martinik led both teams as she matched her career high with 10 rebounds to tally a double-double and also set a new career high with nine assists, finishing just shy of her first career triple-double. Senior forward Rochelle Johnson (Norwalk, Conn.) and Allen each grabbed seven rebounds for SCSU.

For Merrimack, Shannon led the way with 13 points on 4-for-16 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the foul line. Golden, Miller and Takeya Faison each added 10 points apiece on a combined 9-for-16 field-goal shooting performance. Faison led the Warriors in the rebound department with nine, while Golden hauled down eight rebounds as well. Faison recorded a game-best four steals.

SCSU shot 27-for-65 (41.5%) from the floor, 8-for-24 (33.3%) from three-point range and 21-for-32 (65.6%) from the free-throw line on the evening.

Merrimack shot 17-for-46 (37.0%) from the field, 1-for-14 (7.1%) from behind the arc and 23-for-30 (76.7%) from the charity stripe.

The Owls return to action on Sunday, Dec. 16 when they host No. 11 Clayton State in a non-conference contest. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Moore Fieldhouse in New Haven, Conn.