Jack Lawhorne
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – On a cold and windy Sunday afternoon, the first-place Quinnipiac Bobcats made the trip up to North Andover to face the Merrimack Warriors on Merrimack’s Senior Day. Quinnipiac entered the game in control of the MAAC with a conference record of 14-3 (18-10 overall), and Merrimack stood in third place behind QU and Marist at 12-6 (15-14 overall).
Heading into the matchup, Merrimack was coming off a devastating home loss to Rider on Friday, while Quinnipiac was riding a four-game win streak. With just two games to play before the conference tournament and teams like Mount St. Mary’s making late-season pushes, this contest proved to carry immense weight for the Warriors.
The first half was low-scoring and close-contested, with the largest lead for both teams reaching just four.
Budd Clark headed to the locker room around the 12-minute mark with what appeared to be a cut leaving blood on his forehead. The Warriors held down the fort with Malik Edmead running the offense before Clark returned to the game down two with six minutes remaining in the first. But with three to play, Clark again went down and immediately covered his head with his jersey. The MAAC player of the year candidate did not return in the half.
Late in the period, a 6-0 Merrimack run to go up 27-25 followed by a dazzling Matt Becht three-pointer and forced travel on the other end closed out the half and Merrimack entered halftime up 30-27. Malik Edmead led the way with eight points and two assists. Additionally, Budd Clark tallied an eye-catching five steals in his limited eight minutes.
In the second half, Budd Clark returned sporting a stylish headband and quickly made an impact, opening the scoring with a steal on one end and finishing it on the other. The Bobcats answered, but Clark responded with a smooth mid-range jumper, followed by another beautiful three-pointer from Matt Becht.
The Warriors were able to shut down forward Amarri Monroe, holding him to just six points with five turnovers on 1-11 shooting, but Paul Otieno (20 pts) proved to be a dominant force down low for Quinnipiac. However, Merrimack continued to surge offensively. A mid-range jumper from Devon Savage kept the momentum going for the Warriors, while Clark added a free throw, followed by yet another steal and score—marking his seventh steal of the game just four minutes into the second half. Less than a minute later, Clark added his eighth steal.
Tied at 46 with ten minutes remaining, Sean Trumper found Matt Becht for a deep three-point bomb. Clark added a layup before Quinnipiac responded but the star guard came right back with a beautiful play to set up Devon Savage for three. Quinnipiac fought to keep it within three, but Budd Clark entered takeover mode, nailing a three-pointer to go up six.
With two minutes to play, another massive Devon savage three, again set up by Budd Clark’s penetration, put Merrimack up double digits.
From there, Merrimack maintained their commanding lead and closed out the number one team in the conference. Budd Clark finished with a dominant 20 points and eight steals, Matt Becht, Devon Savage, and Sean Trumper also finished with double-digit points. Malik Edmead added eight critical points off the bench.
I spoke with Coach Gallo following the game and he immediately emphasized, “We needed that in the worst way.” Gallo also credited Budd Clark’s defensive impact as a major factor in the win. “Budd Clark had five steals in the first half. He only played seven minutes and finished with eight for the game, so we need that from him, right? We know how good he is offensively, but when he’s changing the game like that defensively, we’re just a completely different team.”
When asked about how the Warriors were able to close the game out with the lead despite doing so being a challenge at times this season, Gallo explained that they often just need shots to fall. While he “wasn’t particularly happy with the effort against Rider,” he conveyed how his teams have prided themselves on closing out games for nine years. “I think we need a couple of those to go in, right? Unfortunately, those couple one-possession games, we had some balls go halfway down and halfway out… I mean, we had some great drives and kicks in late possessions… but what if Savage misses that three? Right? Then we’re sitting here talking about something different.”
Merrimack will close out the regular season at Marist on Thursday night. The Warriors can only control what they can control, which is their performance against Marist, however, there are potential paths to climbing up in the MAAC seeding from third place.
