Manchester, N.H. (February 26) -- A convincing 26-2 second-half run by Saint Anselm led the Hawks to an 86-61 rout of Stonehill on Tuesday night at Stoutenburgh Gym in the regular-season finale for both teams. The win snaps a three-game losing streak in the all-time series with Stonehill and brings the Hawks back to .500 on the season.

After holding a 37-32 lead at the halftime break, the Hawks came out on a tear in the second half and with 13:15 the lead went to 12 points at 56-44 after a three-pointer from Chris Vetrano (Andover, Mass.). After what ended up as a 26-2 run, Saint Anselm had a 29-point lead with 8:09 remaining and Stonehill watched its hopes of a first-round playoff bye disappear in a span of just 5:06. The decisive run was keyed by 10 points from Vetrano, five from Junior Mitchell (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and seven from forward Branimir Zeko (Mississauga, Ontario). Stonehill never got any closer than 23 points down the stretch as the Hawks picked up their largest margin of victory of the season.

Vetrano, Thomas Baudinet (Watertown, Conn.) and Zeko all ended up with 16 points each, while John Tello (Ridgefield Park, N.J.) and Lewis Thompson (Wall, N.J.) finished with 10. Senior guard Jeff Dickson (Bedford, N.H.) ended up with a career-high 12 assists in the victory as well. AJ Rudowitz was the lone Skyhawk in double figures with 14 points as Stonehill shot just 3-for-19 from behind the three-point arc.

With the win, the Hawks improve to 13-13 overall and 11-11 in the Northeast-10, while Stonehill falls to 16-13 overall and 12-10 in league. Saint Anselm has clinched the No. 9 seed in the Northeast-10 Tournament and will travel to Le Moyne for a first-round game on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The winner of that game will travel to No. 1 Bentley on Monday night for a quarterfinal game.