Manchester, N.H. (January 20) -- Led by a
15-point, 11-rebound double-double by sophomore Oliver
Hunter (Bedford, N.H.), the Saint Anselm men's basketball
team defeated Southern Connecticut by a 75-53 final on Wednesday
night. The win is the 14th straight in the series for the Hawks.
The game started out evenly in the first six minutes and with
14:02 left, the game was tied at 8-8 after a three from SCSU's
Tobin Carberry. Over the next 9:04 though, Saint
Anselm put together a 21-4 run and blew the game open with a 29-12
lead with under five minutes left. The run was keyed by a pair of
threes from junior Pat Luptowski (Keene, N.H.) and
four Owl turnovers. SCSU finished the game with 15 turnovers
overall.
With the lead at 16 with 2:33 left, SCSU scored the last seven
points of the first half and trailed by a 33-24 margin at the
break. Carberry had 19 of the Owls' 24 total points in the opening
period.
In the second half, the Hawks made it a double-digit lead in the
opening minutes and pushed the advantage up to 20 on a fast-break,
two-handed dunk by Hunter with 9:27 left in the game. That was as
close as the Owls would get over the remainder of the game as
Southern Connecticut remained winless in the all-time series since
1993.
In addition to Hunter, senior Greg Vetrano (Andover,
Mass.) and sophomore Hakeem Williams (Spring
Valley, N.Y.) finished in double figures with 13 points
each. Luptowski was the fourth Hawk with double digits with 10
points, including two threes and a game-high three steals. Hunter's
11 rebounds were a career-high, while his 15 points missed a
career-high by just one point.
Carberry led all scorers with 30 points for the Owls, along with
11 points from Clyde Chapman.
With the win, the Hawks continue to climb the Northeast-10
standings and now sit in a tie for fifth place at 11-6 overall and
7-5 in the league. Southern Connecticut falls to 2-15 overall and
is just 1-11 in the Northeast-10. Saint Anselm is back in action on
Saturday afternoon as the team travels to New Haven for a 4 p.m.
start at Charger Gym.
