Merrimack makes a push, but Stanford avoids the upset

The Merrimack men’s basketball team made a strong second-half push, but Stanford avoided the upset, beating the Warriors 74-68 on Tuesday night.

Budd Clark made 14 of 21 from the field and led Merrimack (5-6) with a career-high 32 points. Matt Becht hit three 3-pointers and scored 12 points.

Jaylen Blakes hit a 3-pointer to give Stanford (9-2) the lead for good and spark a 26-7 run that made it 31-12 when Sellers made a 3 with 7:19 left in the first half. The Warriors scored 10 of the final 12 — including a jumper at the buzzer by Clark — to cut its deficit 39-30.

“Really proud of our fight, especially late in the first half and our whole second half,” said Merrimack coach Joe Gallo. “Any time you’re on the road with the travel, you’re concerned about a slow start, and we ran into that, but we battled back and had great looks down the stretch. We’ll bottle this up, we had some momentum, and I think that will continue to move forward into conference play.”

Becht made a 3-pointer 10 seconds into the second half, and Clark followed with a layup to make it a four-point game with 19:12 remaining. Oziyah Sellers stole a pass and went the other way for a layup about a minute later, and then Blakes stole the ball and fed Sellers for a dunk to give the Cardinal a 43-35 lead with 17:44 to go.

Clark has scored in double figures in seven straight games and hit the double-digit point mark in 11 out of 12 games this season. Going back to last season, he’s scored in double figures in 23 of Merrimack’s last 25 games.

“He’s such a tough guard. They didn’t want to leave our shooters,
Gallo said. “They were really connected to our shooters and he was able to get into the paint and make some layups. The efficiency for him, from the start of the year until now, he’s been such an efficient player.”

The Warriors will close their California trip on Thursday against Saint Mary’s. The Gaels are 9-2 and coming off a loss to Boise State in overtime on Saturday.