NORTH ANDOVER – I once chatted with then-Merrimack College athletic director Jeremy Gibson about his crop of hotshot coaches, most of whom were enjoying huge, early Div. 1 successes.
The men’s hockey team had made the NCAA tournament for the first time in over a decade. The men’s basketball team won both the NEC regular-season title and the tournament, though they were ineligible for the NCAA tournament thanks to a four-year waiting period required by the NCAA. The football team finished 8-3 in 2023 and went to back-to-back NEC title games. Men’s soccer went 9-0 in league play its very first year in Division 1.
As our conversation wound down, Gibson made one last point.
“You know, the best coach on campus might be the women’s basketball coach,” Gibson said, referring to Kelly Morrone, a three-time captain and star at South Carolina. “You’re going to be hearing from her program… soon.”
There haven’t been any title runs yet. But since Morrone took over in 2020, the Lady Warriors have been much closer to the top than the bottom.
Last season, her team finished tied for sixth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) at 9-11 and made the tournament semifinals, upsetting No. 3 seed Siena (79-72) before falling to No. 2 Quinnipiac (65-51).
Merrimack entered Friday’s matchup in Durham, N.H., against UNH sitting at 3-4, with a couple of early signature wins over Northeastern (83-65) and a buzzer-beater thriller at Dartmouth (59-57) last Tuesday. In between, they gave Boston College a fight before falling 77-72.
So I went up to Durham for an 11 a.m. trip — which included 800 local elementary and middle school kids on a field trip in the stands — to see for myself.
UNH’s women had been struggling with just two wins, both against Div. 3 schools, and six losses.
The night before, the Merrimack men opened their MAAC season with a 68-66 win over Rider University. Sure, the game was tight, but the “opening night” energy—new Carolina blue uniforms, free T-shirts, and a second-straight win—made it a hit.
Like their male counterparts, the Merrimack women play tough defense and push the tempo.
“That’s Kelly’s personality. Everything is in your face, on both ends,” said UNH’s second-year head coach Megan Shoniker, who played for Morrone at URI when Morrone was a young assistant. “It’s not easy facing that pressure all the time.”
Merrimack led from the middle of the first quarter through to the middle of the fourth—at one point up 27-17 in the second and 36-25 in the third—but they couldn’t put the hosts away.
The problem? The best player on the floor, UNH junior guard Eva DeChent (averaging 19.1 points per game), hadn’t taken over just yet.
That changed after halftime. DeChent scored 17 of her 26 in the second half, including a tying three-pointer (53-53) and, seconds later, a steal and driving layup for UNH’s first lead in over an hour.
Merrimack tied it 59-59 after their own star, sophomore Mia Fiore, sank a tough shot in the paint. But UNH pushed ahead 63-59 with 30 seconds left.
Morrone’s squad had two clean looks at driving layups in the final seconds and missed both. Opportunity lost.
And Morrone let her players have it in the locker room afterward.
In fact, she said she was more upset about the previous day’s practice.
“We didn’t prep well in our last practice and it showed. DeChent scored what, 26 points? We knew exactly what to expect,” Morrone said.
Next up for Merrimack is a good Brown team, at 6-3, in North Andover at Lawler Arena on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
“I’m not happy right now, but I know we have the potential to be really good,” Morrone said. “We have the right team, this team. We can score, drive, shoot, defend. We have the right players here. I just haven’t seen it come together yet.”
UNH coach Shoniker would bet it’ll happen sooner rather than later.
“She’s been a mentor for me as a coach and I love the way her teams play,” said Shoniker. “Merrimack is going to be good this year. They battled to the end of this game, just like Kelly always does.”
You can email Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.