MANCHESTER, N.H. – Chloe Rothman scored 17 points off the bench to lead Merrimack College to a 65-62 Northeast-10 women's basketball victory over Southern New Hampshire University at the SNHU Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon.  The Warriors, who secured an NE-10 playoff berth with the win, now stand 14-11 and 10-11 in the league, while the Penmen are 11-14 and 8-13.

Rothman connected on three of her seven three-point attempts and was 6-6 at the free throw line.  Tia Scott tallied 11 points on 4-6 shooting, while Kelly Schatzlein narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.

Four players reached double figures for the Penmen.  Deborah Lavalley (Rochester, N.H.) scored nine of her 11 points in the second half, going 5-8 from the floor, while Michelle DeRoma (West Roxbury, Mass.) also finished with 11 points.  Sloane Sorrell (Berwick, Maine) notched her third straight double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Morgan Munson (Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia) also tallied 10 points, going 4-5 overall.

Southern New Hampshire, which trailed 47-40 with 10 and a half minutes to go, used a 13-4 run capped by five straight points by Lavalley to take a 53-51 lead with 5:32 remaining.  With the game tied 55-55 at the 3:32 mark, Merrimack used a 5-0 spurt to take a 60-55 lead on Scott's layup with 2:21 to go.  The Warriors held a 62-57 lead when DeRoma knocked down a three with 42 seconds left to make it a two-point ballgame.

The Penmen forced a turnover when Merrimack inbounded following a timeout, but gave the ball back after going long on a home run pass.  Having only committed three team fouls in the second half, SNHU was forced to foul four times before it put Rothman on the line with 14 seconds left.

Lavalley converted a layup to make it 64-62 with six seconds to go, and following a SNHU timeout, the Penmen came up with a steal.  Lavalley got a look at a 12-footer, but it rimmed out and Scott controlled the rebound with 0.5 seconds on the clock.  She made the first and intentionally missed the second, but time expired on the miss.

A three-pointer by Munson with 6:36 remaining in the first half put the Penmen on top 22-17, but a 13-2 Warrior run capped by a Schatzlein basket at the 2:53 mark gave the guests a 30-24 lead.  SNHU whittled the lead down to two before going into halftime trailing 31-28.

Southern New Hampshire shot 57.1% in the first half and 51% for the game and Merrimack shot 45.1% for the contests, but the Warriors took 10 more three-pointers, going 8-21 behind the arc while SNHU was 4-11.  Merrimack, which was outrebounded 29-27, was 11-14 at the free throw line while SNHU was 8-10 at the stripe.

The Penmen close out the season Tuesday night when they hosts Saint Michael's College at 5:30 pm for Senior Night.

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