KINGS POINT, N.Y. (Feb. 19, 2022) – The Merchant Marine Academy Mariners men's basketball team scripted quite a Senior Day story with their 58-56 win over Manhattanville on Saturday afternoon. The Mariners honored
Isaiah Nix (Yorktown, Va.),
Jack Bucher (Carlisle, Pa.) and
Blaine McDonough (Marietta, Ga.) in grand style. It was McDonough himself who drained a buzzer-beater to win the North Division title and secure the #2 seed for the Mariners in the upcoming Skyline Conference Tournament.
Merchant Marine, in storybook fashion, improved to 15-8 overall (13-3 Skyline), while Manhattanville fell to 15-8 (12-4 Skyline), seeing their eight-game winning streak snapped. The Valiants will be the #4 seed in the Skyline Tournament.
Thanks to McDonough's heroics, the Mariners won the North Division for the first time and completed an improbable run to their first 15-win season since 2009-10 (where they went 24-5). After starting 2-5, head coach
Rob Pryor's group banded together and ended the regular season with a 13-2 record in their final 15 games.
Game Links
Through the opening 20 minutes, this game appeared to be headed for anything but a nail-biter. Merchant Marine dominated the opening half led by freshman
Drew Zalescik's (Lambertville, N.J.) 11 points to carry a 31-18 lead into the locker room. A 13-point lead which was built by a 24-4 Mariners run to end the half. Zalescik was unconscious in the first half, shooting 4-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from downtown. The freshman, who tied the game-high with 16 points, stole the show on Senior Day, at least for the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds.
McDonough and Bucher combined for 10 first-half points along with Zalescik's 11 to put the Valiants on the ropes going into the break.
The visitors were reeling down double-digits, but were still within striking distance due to the Mariners' struggles at the free-throw line. Merchant Marine left points at the charity stripe by shooting 3-for-9 in half number one. The Mariners would go on to shoot 9-for-20 from the line overall for the game, but the double-figures performances of Zalescik (16), McDonough (13), and Bucher (11), made up for it.
The Mariners' disciplined defense stepped up and allowed only two Manhattanville foul shots the entire game.
The Valiants took advantage of Merchant Marine's misses from the charity stripe by blitzing the Mariners with a 13-0 run to start the second half and knot the contest at 31. Mike Granda and Jake Dunn went to work, and the Mariners simply did not have an answer as the duo combined for 23 points in half number two shooting 8-for-13 from the field and 5-for-9 from downtown.
As the division-deciding game moved into crunch time, an elbow three-pointer from sophomore
Bryce Bristow (Plano, Texas) appeared to put the Mariners in control up 55-50 with 2:15 remaining. A McDonough 1-for-2 trip at the line kept the Valiants in it only down two scores at 56-50.
Left with a pulse, Manhattanville revived themselves with clutch three-points from Granda and Dunn. Dunn's ice-cold corner triple squared the game up at 56-56 with 10.2 seconds on the clock.
As McDonough and Bucher took the floor after the timeout, four years of collegiate basketball came down to one play to win the division. Coach Pryor and his seniors had never won more than 10 games in a season until this year. Off the inbound from Bristow, freshman
Isaac Vencel (Bloomington, Ind.) drove to the rim knowing Manhattanville was in foul trouble. Vencel's attempted layup bounced off the backboard and conveniently found the waiting arms of McDonough. The senior's right-hand floater beat the horn and sent Liebertz Gymnasium into a frenzy.
Merchant Marine will move on to Tuesday night, Feb. 22, as they will host the quarterfinals for the Skyline Championships inside Liebertz Gymnasium. The full bracket for the tournament will be released by the conference later this weekend when the regular season concludes. Live stats and a live video feed of the Skyline Quarterfinals will be available with links on
the USMMA Men's Basketball Schedule Page.
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