ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Marist men’s basketball’s season came to a close Sunday with a backbreaking one-point loss to Merrimack in the MAAC Tournament Semifinal.
The two teams traded the lead several times down the stretch. With 12 seconds remaining, and roughly six on the shot clock, Merrimack inbounded the ball. Sophomore guard Tye Dorset put up a jumper that missed everything and appeared to be grabbed by senior forward Jaden Daughtry after the shot clock expired. The officials did not call a violation.
“It was a judgement call. The official chose to let the game play on,” a representative from the MAAC stated after the game.
“[MAAC coordinator of men’s basketball officials] Mike Stephens came into the locker room and just said, ‘In those situations it’s a judgement call and could go either way,’” Marist head coach John Dunne said. “It wasn’t made, and we move on.”
Marist had a timeout remaining as senior guard Jadin Collins-Roberts brought the ball back up to halfcourt, but Dunne chose not to use it. Collins-Roberts stumbled as he went up the court and failed to get a shot up or a pass off before the clock – and Marist’s season – expired.
“I panicked a little bit, to be completely honest,” Collins-Roberts said. “[Dunne] will say he should have called [a timeout], but being the point guard on the floor, I knew we had one timeout… I should have been able to just get it across the court. We probably would have had two, 1.5 seconds to play if I called timeout.”
“It’s not on Jaden, it’s on me,” Dunne said. “I didn’t call a timeout. It’ll eat at me for years.”
The Red Foxes turned the ball over 20 times in the game, including 13 times in the second half. Merrimack scored 19 points off turnovers in the game.
“That’s what they do, they turn you over,” Dunne said. “They’re so strong with their swipe downs in the paint… we made it a little more difficult for ourselves, [we] didn’t play a clean game.”
Merrimack led for much of the first half and by as many as eight, but the Red Foxes mounted a run heading into the break.
A 3-pointer from freshman forward Myles Parker, a lay-in by sophomore guard Justin Menard and drive to the rack by graduate student guard Rhyjon Blackwell evened the game at 28 with under a minute to play in the first. Two free throws by junior forward Todd Brogna put the Warriors ahead by two heading into the break, but Marist found themselves in the game despite struggling for parts of the half.
Blackwell nailed a 3-pointer on the second-half’s first possession to briefly put Marist in front, but Merrimack then embarked on a rapid 8-0 run capped by a steal and finish on the other end by freshman forward Kevair Kennedy to lead 38-31 with 17:54 to go.
Coming out of a Dunne timeout, Marist responded with a 6-0 run of its own. Daughtry made two tough looks in a row before Collins-Roberts cut the deficit back to one.
Another 3-pointer by Blackwell with 15 minutes to go knotted the game at 40 — but Merrimack responded the same way as it did to the previous one, this time with a 7-0 run that ended with a Shelton 3-pointer and a Marist timeout.
Merrimack built its lead up to eight with a few ticks under nine minutes remaining, but Marist again scrapped to stay in the game. Menard drew a foul on a 3-point attempt and Collins-Roberts cashed in a feed from sophomore forward Parby Kabamba to get back within three.
“Where I’m really proud is that, the first two times we played them, we would have melted down [during] both runs,” Dunne said. “They made two runs in the second half and we didn’t melt down and we fought back twice.”
Daughtry finished through contact to bring the deficit back to three after a Merrimack basket. On the subsequent Warrior possession, Daughtry swatted away a Kennedy attempt around the rim before finishing through junior forward KC Ugwuakazi on the other end — the defensive player of the year fouled out on the play with 5:38 remaining.
A lane violation on Kabamba prevented Daughtry from attempting a potential game-tying free throw, but Collins-Roberts scored on the next possession to go ahead by one.
Dorset responded with his second triple to put the Warriors ahead by two, but Menard soon evened the game with 2:42 to go before Blackwell converted a floater with 1:52 remaining to once again put the Red Foxes in front.
Dorset responded once more.
This time, he hit a contested 3-pointer to go ahead by one with 1:21 remaining. Marist had numerous chances to respond on the other end with a trio of offensive rebounds, but failed to make a shot, including a point-blank miss by Kabamba with 51 seconds to go.
“His knee wasn’t feeling fully healthy,” Dunne said of Kabamba. “I think for Parby, the back-to-back games, he looked a little slower than yesterday, but he was out there trying to battle through it. So my heart breaks for him there a little bit.”
Following Kabamba’s miss, Menard missed a jumper before Blackwell turned the ball over. Then, the disastrous final sequence ended the season.
“Everybody’s gonna have something that they regret when you lose,” Dunne said. “That’s the pain of losing.”
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic & Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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