The Holy Cross women's basketball team wraps up their nonconference and 2023 portion of the schedule with a 10:30 a.m. showdown against Merrimack on Wednesday, Dec. 20. The contest will stream live on ESPN+.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT HOLY CROSS (5-5, 0-0 PL): 

• The Crusaders improved to 4-0 at home this season after a dominating 65-41 win against Northeastern on Sunday. The Crusaders outscored the Huskies 39-19 in the second half while senior Cara McCormack scored 13 points with a game-best five assists and three three-pointers.
• Senior Bronagh Power-Cassidy was named the Patriot League Player of the Week on Monday afternoon by the league offices. Power-Cassidy scored a game and season-high 24 points on 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) shooting with six boards, three triples, an assist, a block and a steal in the victory over the Huskies.
• Power-Cassidy also became the 36th member of the program's 1,000 point club. She needs 13 more three-pointers and 16 more blocks to crack the program's top-10 career list.
• Over the last five games, the Crusaders have allowed only 44.8 points per game while holding opponents to 22.7 percent (20-for-88) three-point shooting while outrebounding foes 44.2-to-30.8.  

SCOUTING THE WARRIORS (3-9, 0-0 NEC): 

• Merrimack has lost three straight games including a 64-44 setback to Patriot League foe Bucknell on Sunday afternoon. Paloma Garcia scored a team-best 19 points on 50 percent (8-of-16) shooting with five rebounds, two steals and a block.
• Before the season, the Warriors were picked to finish second in the NEC Preseason Poll back in October following a 15-16 overall and 10-6 NEC finish last season which saw them place third in the conference.
• Merrimack is headlined by a pair of preseason All-NEC Selections, Jayme DeCesare and Kaylee Thomas. DeCeasre paces the team in minutes per game (32.9), assists per game (2.2) and is second in scoring (9.8) while Thomas has not appeared in a game this season.
• As a team, the Warriors are the NEC leader in opponent field goal percentage (38.4 percent), rebounds per game (35.7), and blocks per game (3.4), second in three-pointers per game (5.5), rank third in scoring offense (54.0), scoring defense (64.1) and three-point percentage (27.3 percent).

LAST TIME THEY MET: 

• Holy Cross is 3-0 in the series against Merrimack which began back in 1979.
• In their last meeting on Nov. 7, 2022 the Crusaders rolled to a 67-39 win in North Andover. Bronagh Power-Cassidy scored a game-high 19 points with three rebounds and three steals on 57.1 percent (8-of-14) shooting.

FOLLOW THE CRUSADERS 
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