Rising Star
IUP's Merraro racks up first double-double in 88-70 win over Penn State DuBois
Kymani Merraro was slicing and dicing and wheeling and dealing.
IUP’s freshman point guard put on another show Wednesday night, registering the first double-double of his collegiate career with 11 points and 11 assists in an 88-70 win over Penn State DuBois in a non-conference basketball game at the KCAC.
“A double-double, I got it. It feels good,” Merraro said. “It feels good to get my teammates going, to get them open shots. Everyone shoots better when they get open shots. Everyone gets more confidence. And that’s preparing us for Gannon, a big game on Saturday. It’s good to see people get into the groove now and hopefully keep that going into Saturday.”
Merraro is the first freshman to start at point guard in 19 seasons under coach Joe Lombardi. He’s listed on the roster at 5-foot-10, but he’s barely pushing 5-9. Regardless, he uses his lack of height to his advantage while he displays quick moves and ballhandling skills that make him hard to defend, exhibits uncanny court vision that leads to pinpoint passes, possesses the ability to see a play developing and has a growing understanding of the game and IUP’s system.
To top it off, he has intangible qualities necessary for greatness.
“He’s one of our more mature guys, to be honest with you,” Lombardi said. “He has maturity beyond his years. He’s had it all year long. Just his work ethic. He wants to be coached hard. Guys, when they’re immature, they get into their feelings a little bit and don’t like to be coached hard and yelled at and have their mistakes pointed out. Ky thrives on that, and to me, that’s maturity. He’s not sensitive. His ego is in a good spot. He’s got enough confidence in himself that getting coached hard doesn’t bother him. I’m not surprised.”
Merraro is averaging 13.9 points, 4.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game. He hit his career high of 21 points twice and reached double figures in all but three games. He ran his season assist total to 100 — he ranks third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference behind a junior and a graduate student — and has committed only 49 turnovers.
He topped his previous best single-game assist output by three, and had his teammates converted several easy opportunities, he might have flirted with IUP’s single-game record of 14 assists set by Mont Mattocks more than 50 years ago in 1967-68 and matched by Marc Williams in 2005-06.
“Ky, that’s my guy,” junior backup point guard Alfonso Pickens Jr. said. “He’s really a special kid. He’s only 18 but has a lot of growth in him. The way he’s playing right now, he’s still teaching me stuff and he’s learning off me, as well. We’re both learning off each other the things we need to do out there.”
Merraro has a long way to go before he can put his name in the school-record book, but it’s easy to ponder the future and think he can reach the single-season assist mark of 234 set by Armoni Foster in 2021-22 and the career total of 567 set by Dante Lombardi in 2015-19 — if he spends four seasons at IUP in an era when players are free to move from school to school via the NCAA transfer portal.
“I still have a lot to learn,” Merraro said. “I just learn at a decent rate and have a really good coach that believes in me. I’m still a freshman and there’s a lot of stuff to learn, and I like the pace I’m going at. I just feel like the game is starting to slow down for me a bit and I’m starting to see stuff before it happens, and that’s helping my game a lot by knowing where my teammates are and getting them the ball.”
Merraro has been masterful at breaking down defenses off the dribble and finding open teammates with a variety of passes, including some highlight reel no-looks and wraparounds. Last month, in a last-second win over Seton Hill at the KCAC, he put on a dazzling dribbling display and one-on-one moves and drilled a buzzer-beating 3-pointer over two defenders.
“I feel like I’m trying to play with pace where I slow it down and analyze instead of going fast,” he said. “Teams want to speed you up so you don’t have time to make decisions. So, I try to really slow down and try to make the right read, and the more Coach teaches me the more I learn, so I know more of what to do in this situation and this situation and try to execute that.”
While Merraro made things look easy, Division II IUP had a tougher-than-expected time with its Division III opponent. Penn State DuBois (9-14), in its second season under former IUP volunteer assistant and Indiana resident Daniel Smay, held an 18-15 lead seven minutes into the game before the Crimson Hawks outscored the Lions 33-15 for a 15-point halftime advantage at 48-33.
IUP built the lead to 24 points four minutes into the second half, but Penn State DuBois staged a 21-5 burst that chopped its deficit to eight at the 11:30 mark, and the Lions pulled within seven a couple possessions later.
The Hawks rebuilt a double-digit lead during a 17-4 run and stretched the margin to 20 points going into the closing minutes.
Penn State DuBois, which lost leading scorer and point guard Kaleb Pryor and starter Jordin Sommers to injuries in the first half, fueled its surge by making seven of its first eight 3-point attempts in the second half. The seventh 3 and third in succession set the margin at seven and forced IUP to call a timeout. After that, the Lions missed their final eight attempts from 3 and saw their five-game winning streak end.
“They played loose, they played with confidence, and they actually did the whole game,” Lombardi said. “Credit to Dan and what he’s building up there and the type of team he has. They competed. We didn’t do some things well we need to do better. … When we needed to, we came up with some good defensive stops and responded well to that situation. I’m not going to overanalyze it.”
IUP shot 54 percent with a season-high 34 field goals on 63 attempts. The Hawks finished 7-for-22 from 3-point range, made their first 11 free throws and finished 13-for-17 and led the rebounding by 12, 42-30. IUP committed nine of its 14 turnovers in the first half.
The Hawks’ three freshmen each reached double figures in scoring. Tyler Grove scored 16 points and Ian Herring matched Merraro with 11. Damir Brooks finished with 16 points and Christian Moore added 13. Grove and Herring combined for 15 rebounds, and Herring had two steals to raise his team-leading total to 38.
Penn State DuBois shot 40.3 percent, going 27-for-67 overall and 11-for-25 from 3-point range. The Lions finished with 13 turnovers.
None of Penn State DuBois’ starters reached double figures, and 55 of its 70 points came from the bench. Kyron Harbin led the way with a game-high 17 points. Sommers left with a back injury at the 11:33 mark and Pryor, who was averaging 17.4 points per game, left with a hamstring injury a couple minutes later.
“There’s a big dynamic that goes into a game like this,” Lombardi said. “I’m going back to the maturity issue. Mature teams are humble teams. Humble teams really respect every opponent every time they go on floor and play the same way no matter who they’re playing. That’s hard to do. That level of maturity is hard to find and even harder to find with some guys. … But I love the lessons DuBois taught us tonight because I constantly want to grow in humility and gratitude, and these experiences teach them.”
Wednesday’s game was a tune-up for Saturday’s matchup at Gannon (17-6), which holds first place in the PSAC West at 12-3. Gannon snapped a three-game losing streak and clinched a playoff berth by beating Edinboro, 82-74, on Wednesday night.
The race below the Golden Knights is tight with seven teams vying for the five remaining playoff spots. IUP is fifth at 6-7 with the same number of wins as the three teams it leads in the standings and the same number of losses as three teams it trails. The Hawks have seven games remaining while the other teams have either five or six.
Gannon, the defending conference champion, last month returned to its home court at the Highmark Events Center — formerly the Hammermill Center — a 75-year-old structure in downtown Erie that underwent a $12 million renovation.
“This was a good practice game for us to get ready for Gannon,” Lombardi said. “Gannon is at the top of the league, and typically it’s a hard place to play, and tonight’s game with some (full-court) pressure prepared us a little bit and exposed some stuff and maybe we can grow and get a little more ready, a little more comfortable with some things.
IUP has lost four straight games to Gannon, including an 89-82 setback at home on Jan. 8.
“I believe in our team,” Lombardi said. “I think we can beat everybody in our conference, beat anybody at home, beat anybody away. We just need to break through some ceilings and see if we’re made for this moment or if that moment is still a ways off.”
WEDNESDAY’S BOX SCORE
IUP 88, PENN STATE DuBOIS 70
Penn State DuBois (9-14)
Sommers 0-0 0-0 0, Fortson 2-8 0-0 5, Poplar 2-6 0-0 4, Pryor 2-4 1-2 5, Verdill 0-2 1-2 1, Myers 4-6 0-0 10, Love 3-8 2-2 11, Schaeffer 2-3 0-0 5, Harbin 7-22 1-2 17, Cornelius 2-3 0-0 6, Pearson 3-4 0-0 6, Ferrell 0-0 0-0 0, Preston 0-0 0-0 0, Weber 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 27-67 (.403) 5-8 (.635) 70
IUP (11-10)
Brooks 6-9 4-7 16, Grove 7-12 1-1 16, Merraro 4-8 2-2 11, Moore 5-13 2-2 13, Furtun 2-4 2-2 7, Herring 5-7 0-0 11, Triggs 1-2 2-2 5, Pickens 3-5 0-1 7, MacNamara 1-2 0-0 2, Watson 0-0 0-0 0, Campbell 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 34-63 (.540) 13-17 (.765) 88
Halftime — IUP 48-33. 3-point field goals — Penn State DuBois 11-25 (Fortson 1-3, Poplar 0-1, Pryor 0-1, Verdill 0-2, Myers 2-4, Love 3-4, Schaeffer 1-1, Harbin 2-5, Cornelius 2-3, Pearson 0-1), IUP 7-22 (Grove 1-4, Merraro 1-2, Moore 1-8, Furtun 1-1, Herring 1-2, Triggs 1-2, Pickens 1-2, Campbell 0-1). Rebounds — Penn State DuBois 30 (Harbin 7), IUP 42 (Grove 8). Assists — Penn State DuBois 7 (seven players had one each), IUP 18 (Merraro 11). Turnovers — Penn State DuBois 13, IUP 14. Total fouls — Penn State DuBois 15, IUP 10.
WEDNESDAY’S PSAC SCORES
West
Clarion 79, Pitt-Johnstown 76
California 73, Seton Hill 53
Gannon 82, Edinboro 74
East
Bloomsburg 76, Mansfield 72
Lock Haven 75, Kutztown 68
Millersville 91, Shippensburg 89
West Chester 57, Shepherd 49
SATURDAY’S PSAC GAMES
Games at 3 p.m.
West
IUP at Gannon
California at Slippery Rock
Pitt-Johnstown at Edinboro
Seton Hill at Clarion
East
Bloomsburg at Shepherd
Lock Haven at Shippensburg
Mansfield at West Chester
Millersville at East Stroudsburg
