Box Score
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Southern Connecticut State University men's basketball team valiantly battled back from a 14-point second half deficit to force overtime, but host Merrimack secured a 100-94 victory over the Owls on Monday evening in non-conference action.
TEAM RECORDS: SCSU 15-7 | Merrimack 15-6
Michael Mallory (Waterbury, Conn.) scored 28 points and added five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Toby Christensen (Gentofte, Denmark) matched a career-high with 20 points and added 10 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double.
Joey Wallace (Rochester, N.Y.) also reached double figures with 19 points and added seven assists, seven rebounds and two steals.
ONE MORE TO GO: With his 28 points tonight, Mallory passed Stonehill's Jon Cronin (2,301 points) and AIC's James Hector (2,306) into sole possession of second place on the all-time NE10 scoring list. He now has 2,311 points and trails only Assumption's Drew Adderly (2,489) for first all-time.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Warriors scored the first five points of the game. The Owls came back to tie the game at 16-16 and 18-18, but otherwise, the hosts led for the entire first half. Southern had closed to 38-36 with under 90 seconds to go in the opening frame, but Merrimack scored the last eight points of the half to take a 46-36 advantage into halftime.
The Owls quickly opened the second half on a 13-6 run to close with three at 52-49 and then again at 54-51. The Warriors answered with a 17-6 spurt to build its biggest lead of the game at 71-57.
SCSU slowly clawed back to force overtime. A putback from Wallace tied the game at 80-80 with just over a minute to go. The Warriors got a conventional three-point play on their next trip before another Wallace hoop got the Owls within one, 83-82.
???????Merrimack hit one-of-two free throws on its next trip and Mallory tied the game with a short jumper with just over six seconds left. The Warriors turned it over on the inbounds, giving SCSU a chance to win. The Owls had three shots but couldn't get one to fall.
In the overtime, Merrimack scored the first seven points and went on to the six-point win.
UP NEXT: at Adelphi, Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
