EMMITTSBURG — The Mount St. Mary’s women’s basketball team has enjoyed a few memorable wins this winter, including defeating 2018-19 Big South tournament champion and NCAA tournament qualifier Radford in November and upending Northeast Conference leader Robert Morris on Friday night.
But Sunday afternoon’s 62-53 victory over visiting Merrimack at Knott Arena was especially rewarding for the Mountaineers, who had to wait an agonizing 42 days to make amends for a 76-55 loss to a league upstart.
“I would say this one is more satisfying because they’re a new team and they beat us,” junior center Rebecca Lee said. "Beating them was a statement win. We knocked them off, and now we have to knock off Saint Francis.”
Sophomore point guard Michaela Harrison compiled 17 points, five assists, four steals, two rebounds and one block for Mount St. Mary’s (18-9, 13-2 Northeast), which collected its eighth straight win, tying its longest winning streak in six years. Lee, a Severn resident and Old Mill graduate, added 10 points, seven rebounds and three blocks, and redshirt junior guard Kendall Bresee finished with six points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals.
That 21-point setback to the Warriors on Jan. 13 was the Mountaineers’ most lopsided loss since Feb. 9, 2019, when that squad absorbed a 76-41 thumping at Sacred Heart. What made that outcome especially difficult to rationalize was that Mount St. Mary’s had launched 77 shots — 31 more than Merrimack had taken — but still got blown out.
“If they didn’t remember, we reminded them over and over again,” coach Maria Marchesano said. “It was definitely hands down the worst game we played all year. We were without Kendall, who is one of our better players, but we took 31 more shots than them and still lost by 20 at their place, which is just an insane stat. So we definitely didn’t forget it. It’s the only game in the conference that we really had not been in the game, and they took control of that game and beat us really well at their place.”
The Mountaineers returned the favor Sunday, racing to a 14-0 advantage before the media timeout with 4:31 left in the first quarter. The offense shot 60% (6-for-10) from the field, including 2-for-4 from 3-point range, and Harrison had 10 points. Meanwhile, the Warriors missed all eight of their attempts and turned the ball over three times.
“Last time we played, we couldn’t really hit anything,” said Harrison, who had 13 points, two assists and one block after the game’s first 15 minutes. “So today, the main focus was that defense was going to spark our offense. So we got out and we got stop after stop. When we can get stops and we like to play fast, it’s kind of hard to guard our team.”
The Mountaineers turned 20 Merrimack turnovers — tied for the fourth-highest total the Warriors have committed this season — into 16 points and got 19 points from their bench compared with 10 from Merrimack’s reserves. The closest the Warriors got was a seven-point gap at 54-47 with 9:07 left in the fourth quarter before Lee scored six consecutive points to help Mount St. Mary’s regain a double-digit cushion.
Senior forward Denia Davis-Stewart paced Merrimack (18-9, 11-5) with a game-high 21 points and collected 11 rebounds, and graduate student forward Courtney Clasen chipped in 11 points, 13 rebounds and two steals as the Warriors lost for only the second time in the month of February and for the first time since Feb. 1.
But Merrimack coach Monique LeBlanc said the early deficit influenced her players into abandoning their pregame strategy.
“They got off to a really good start offensively, which put pressure on us offensively,” she said. “I think we didn’t do a great job of really sticking to our game plan. Being down early, I think it then affected us in the sense that we took quicker shots and didn’t share the ball as well and kind of forced up some bad shots early. I think we turned it around and especially in the second half did a better job of taking great shots. Some of those, we just didn’t hit. But being down kind of set the tone at the beginning of the game, not the kind of tone we wanted to set.”
Having already locked up the No. 2 seed in the Northeast Conference tournament, which begins March 9, the Mountaineers can capture the regular-season championship, the No. 1 seed and the right to host every postseason game if they win their final three games, including a rematch with Robert Morris (19-7, 14-1) on March 2 at 7 p.m. at Knott Arena. Turning that scenario into reality is an open secret among the players, who are 9-2 when playing at home.
“None of us have been in this position before,” Harrison said. “So it’s just really exciting. We have days at practice where we know we have to step it up because we are on a winning streak and we can’t just have lackadaisical days or a drop-off. So it’s big for us.”
Mount St. Mary’s@Saint Francis
Saturday, 2 p.m.
TV/Video: MASN, ESPN3
Northeastern 66, Towson 63: Katie May scored 15 points to help the host Huskies (12-14, 8-7 Colonial Athletic Association) beat the Tigers (13-12, 8-6).
Kionna Jeter scored 25 points and Nukiya Mayo added 12 for Towson, which had its three-game winning streak ended. The Tigers host Delaware on Friday.
State men
Loyola Maryland 70, Lafayette 68: The Greyhounds took a 10-point lead with 10:09 left in regulation and did not score a field goal for the rest of the game, but held off the Leopards (17-10, 9-7 Patriot League) for their third straight win.
Both Spanish freshmen on the Loyola roster — Santi Aldama and Golden Dike — had double doubles as three Greyhounds scored 14 or more points. Dike scored 14 points and matched his career-high with 12 rebounds, while Aldama added 14 points and 10 rebounds. Andrew Kostecka scored a team-high 16 points and had seven rebounds.
Loyola (15-14, 7-9) plays at Navy on Wednesday.
Mount St. Mary’s 65, Merrimack 57: Nana Opoku scored 25 points and Malik Jefferson added 12 to help the host Mountaineers (11-18, 7-9 Northeast) upend the conference-leading Warriors (19-11, 13-4).
The Mount play at Saint Francis on Thursday.
Baltimore Sun staff contributed to this article.