LOWELL, Mass. – The Jacksonville University men's basketball team (3-3) wrapped up its appearance in the River Hawk Invitational on Sunday afternoon, suffering a hard-fought loss to Merrimack (3-2), 54-44, despite another dominant performance from David Bell.

Bell scored 16 points and pulled down a career-best 16 rebounds will also matching a career-high with four blocks. All four of those blocks came in the first half and the redshirt-senior scored eight-straight and collected five of those rebounds over the course of the first five minutes of the second half to lead a comeback charge for JAX.

This is the first double-double for the big man from Cleveland, Ohio this season and the fourth of his career. He's the first Dolphin to pull down at least 15 boards in a game since, well, himself on Feb. 16, 2019. Before that, it hadn't been done since Marcel White grabbed 15 against Thomas University on Nov. 23, 2015. For the curious parties out there, no one in a Jacksonville uniform has collected 20 or more rebounds in a game since Haminn Quaintance had 21 against Troy on Jan. 5, 2005.

No other Jacksonville player approached double figures as the team struggled from beyond the arc against Merrimack's zone. The Dolphins finished 3-17 from deep while the Warriors canned 10 triples to create the difference in this one.

The Dolphins led by two mid-way through the first half on a Bryce Workman driving lay-in. He finished with six points and four boards. That was the only lead that Jacksonville would possess however as Merrimack shot itself into a 6-0 lead before anyone could settle in. Jacksonville mustered multiple runs in the first to knot the score but a 12-0 run by the Warriors beginning at the 9:14 mark in a tie game left JAX playing from behind the rest of the way.

Merrimack scored first out of the halftime break to move ahead by 16 but that was when Bell went on a personal 8-0 run to get JAX back into this one in a big way. After quite a bit of back-and-forth, the big man entered the game with his team trailing by 11 at the 6:22 mark and went to work. He scored two points and pulled down three more boards as Jacksonville clawed to within six with 2:11 to play but that was as close as it would come in this one.

On the very next Merrimack possession the home team on the scoreboard buried a triple to more or less put this one out of reach with 1:27 to go. The Dolphins were unable to answer on the other end and this one came to a close with Merrimack on top.

Next up, the Dolphins will return home after this extended road trip to square up with Western Carolina inside Historic Swisher Gymnasium. That game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip and tickets are still available at JUTickets.com.

Hodges Mazda Player of the Game: David Bell (16 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks)