Manchester, N.H. (January 5) -- After trailing by double digits in the first half, Saint Anselm rallied behind 29 points from senior All-American candidate Thomas Baudinet (Watertown, Conn.) as the Hawks defeated visiting Le Moyne by a 65-63 final in overtime on Wednesday night.
Saint Anselm shot just 25 percent in the first half and trailed by a 31-21 margin at the break before coming to life to start the second half. Getting things started with a three-pointer was freshman Dino Mallios (Winthrop, Mass.) to cut the lead to seven, followed by five straight points from Baudinet to make it a 31-29 game. The Hawks took their first lead of the game on a three from the corner by Pat Luptowski (Keene, N.H.) and pushed the lead up to six on another three from Baudinet.
The Hawks led by as many as nine at 45-36 after a three from freshman John Nielsen (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) before the Dolphins answered with a 10-1 run to tie the game at 46-46 with 6:42 left. After trailing by three, the Hawks cut the lead back to one at 57-56 with under two minutes remaining on a reverse layup from Allen Harris (Roslindale, Mass.). Saint Anselm regained the lead on the exact same play just seconds later, capitalizing on a Le Moyne turnover.
Chris Johnson gave the Dolphins the lead back on a free throw line jumper from the left elbow, but that lead was short lived. On the ensuing Hawk possession, Mallios faked a jumper and found a wide open Baudinet in the far corner for the three with 15.7 seconds remaining. The Dolphins weren't done though as they had the ball underneath their own basket with just 2.3 seconds left after an inadvertent whistle by the officials. James Cormier inbounded the ball to a cutting Kevin Roth, who converted the layup and was fouled with just 1.4 seconds remaining. After a pair of Saint Anselm timeouts, Roth missed the potential game-winning free throw and the game headed into the overtime period tied at 61-61.
Back-to-back layups by Baudinet opened the overtime scoring for the Hawks, opening a 65-61 advantage. Jim Janson cut the lead to two on a dunk with 1:17 left. Both teams missed opportunities in the final minutes and the Hawks held on for their second overtime victory in a row at home.
Baudinet led all scorers with 29 points as he now has 1,627 career points, just six points shy of eighth place on the all-time scoring list. Harris also added 17 points and 14 rebounds for the double-double. Janson and Roth each finished with 15 points to lead the Dolphins, along with 15 rebounds by Roth for the double-double.
With the win, Saint Anselm improves to 10-2 overall and 6-2 in the Northeast-10, while Le Moyne falls to 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the league. The Hawks are back in action on Saturday afternoon as the team travels to Adelphi for a 3:30 p.m. start in Garden City, N.Y.
