Saint Peter’s leaves no doubt of its strength with dominant W over Merrimack

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Bashir Mason referred to the stretch his Saint Peter’s began Friday as a gauntlet.

Beginning with defending MAAC champion Mount St. Mary’s and the perpetually scrappy Merrimack less than 48 hours later, the Peacocks were not done any favors in their league schedule despite starting 4-0. After a loss to The Mount Friday, Mason stressed the need to rebound — literally and figuratively — to his roster over five games in an 11-day period.

Message received.

Saint Peter’s jumped on Merrimack from the start Sunday, and proceeded to limit the Warriors in almost every facet of the game, running away with a convincing 76-63 victory at Run Baby Run Arena.

“We were really detailed, especially coming off a loss,” Mason said after his team secured a plus-11 margin on the backboards, with 15 of its 37 rebounds coming on the offensive glass. “I thought our response was great. In conference play, we’ve been doing a really good job of winning the glass by four or five a night. That was a point of emphasis, getting on the glass, especially turning those into points. I think we’ve been doing a good job of getting offensive rebounds, but it’s not resulting in points. We knew we had to capitalize.”

“I didn’t think our energy level was where it needed to be,” Merrimack head coach Joe Gallo conceded after his Warriors were handed their first conference loss. “It’s like playing us, in a way. If you get in a 10-12-point hole against either one of us, it’s tough fighting your way back with limited possessions. They really came at us and we weren’t ready to draw that line in the sand.”

Saint Peter’s, particularly the two-man interior tandem of Zaakir Williamson and Lucas Scroggins, played its traditional physical brand of basketball, shutting off the passing lanes and making it difficult for Merrimack to find a clean shot from any spot on the floor. Mason employed a high-pressure man defense to start the game, then counteracted the Warriors’ 2-3 zone defense with a zone scheme of his own that flustered the visitors even further.

“I wanted to establish that we can, and will, guard you, and create a mindset with our guys,” Mason said of his man-to-man system. “I thought we did a really good job in our man-to-man of establishing that, and then switching to the zone, against our man, (Merrimack wasn’t) able to get really good looks. They hadn’t seen any go in, so we wanted to turn them into some thinkers instead of being able to free flow, which I think stifled them in the first half a little bit.”

It was a marked contrast from the way Mason had intended to play at the start of the season, when he intimated to Sam Federman that he had planned to “use it in spots.” But as the season has evolved, so too has the coach’s strategy.

“I’m a liar,” Mason deadpanned. “We’ve been doing a combination of man and zone to keep guys off balance, and it goes with the scout. Our man-to-man, and our mentality with that, has probably helped our zone become a lot better in terms of our aggressiveness.”

Speaking of aggressiveness, Bryce Eaton also demonstrated that on the offensive end for Saint Peter’s on Sunday. The Detroit point guard only scored 10 points, but added to that total with six assists and three steals as he becomes more of a conductor on either end of the floor. For a player whose ability to grasp such a complex system was questioned at this point 12 months ago, Mason is proud of the progress his pupil has made since.

“Man, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores,” he gushed. “How the game has slowed down for (Eaton) and how he’s able to see things, and be connected with me and understanding what I’m looking for and what’s happening in the game, it’s incredible to see.”

“A year ago, I didn’t think he would ever get it. Just to have him out there as a steady presence is phenomenal. When you have two guys that can handle the ball and make decisions, it just makes us better.”

Saint Peter’s continues its self-proclaimed gauntlet on Wednesday at Quinnipiac, before a meeting with Rider precedes a home battle with Iona and a rematch with the Merrimack team the Peacocks just defeated. Now 5-1 in the MAAC and a half-game off the conference lead, the prospects for a first-round bye in March’s conference tournament appear to be favorable, but for Mason, the goal is to simply keep winning in the moment.”

“We’re just trying to come out of this portion of our season winning,” he said. “If we could go 4-1, great, 3-2, great. We don’t want to have a losing record coming out of these five games. We’re 1-1 right now, and I’m happy with that.”