RINDGE, N.H. – Senior Megan Howard (St. Paul, Minn.) posted 20 points and 12 rebounds, while classmate Epiphany Smith (Springdale, Ark.) scored 16 points, but the Saint Anselm College women's basketball team fell to 13th-ranked Franklin Pierce University, 68-61, Sunday evening at the Franklin Pierce Fieldhouse.
The Hawks drop to 7-3 on the season, including 2-3 in Northeast-10 play, while the Ravens remain perfect at 6-0, 5-0.
Howard was 9-for-20 from the field en route to her fourth double-double of the season and 39th of her career. Howard pulled down five of her rebounds on the offensive end and tallied three steals, a block and an assist. Smith shot 6 of 14 from the floor and registered six assists, two steals, a pair of rebounds and a block.
The Hawks found themselves down 7-2 early and after a Smith 3-pointer had cut the Saint Anselm deficit to 9-7, a Brittany Martelle 3 pushed the Franklin Pierce lead back to five. The lead was four just three possessions later when the Ravens used a 10-2 run, which was ignited by another Martelle trey, to open it up to 25-13 with 8:56 to play in the opening half.
The Franklin Pierce lead grew to as large as 28-15 with 7:01 remaining and was 33-21 with 3:52 on the clock when a layup by sophomore Briana Jones (White Plains, N.Y.) jump-started an 11-0 run that nearly erased the Ravens' entire lead. Classmate Mariah Wynn (Boston, Mass.) followed with a 3-pointer to cut it to seven, before a Smith layup sliced it to five. A pair of Howard free throws made it a three-point game and Howard then whittled the deficit to just one at 33-32 on a basket with 45 seconds left.
A Lekia Cowen 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining snapped the run and sent Franklin Pierce into the break with a 36-32 advantage.
After the Ravens went ahead by six on a Kate McDonald jumper just 22 seconds into the second half, the Hawks used a 7-0 run that was capped by a Smith layup to take their first lead of the night at 39-38 with 18:01 remaining.
Franklin Pierce responded by scoring six straight to grab a five-point lead. The Ravens led 47-41 at the 13:39 mark when six straight points from Saint Anselm knotted the game at 47 with 10:52 to play. Franklin Pierce hit back once more with a 16-4 run that opened its advantage up to 63-51 with 4:05 left.
Baskets by Howard and Jones would cut it to eight, but a Jewel White layup pushed the margin back to 10. The Hawks would close to within seven, 66-59, on a Howard layup with 23 seconds left, but it was not enough as the Ravens held on for the victory.
Jones chipped in 10 points on 5 of 10 shooting to go along with three steals and two rebounds.
The Ravens held a slight 42.6 percent (23-54) to 39.3 percent (24-61) edge in shooting, but made 45.5 percent (10-22) of their shots from beyond the arc, while the Hawks hit 25 percent (4-16) of their 3s. Saint Anselm held a 34-22 advantage in the paint, but were outrebounded, 36-34. The Hawks also turned the ball over 13 times – their second lowest mark of the season – and forced 15 FPU turnovers.
White led the Ravens with 19 points and 15 boards.
The Hawks return to action Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m. when they travel south to take on the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The next home game for the Hawks is not until Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 5:30 p.m. when they play host to the College of Saint Rose.
