MANCHESTER, N.H. – Sophomore Allen Harris (Roslindale, Mass.) scored a season-high 24 points as the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team captured an 81-76 victory against Saint Michael's College on Thursday evening at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
The Hawks win their second straight game for the first time all season to improve to 4-8 overall, including 2-6 in Northeast-10 play. The Purple Knights drop to 4-8, 3-5 NE-10.
Harris was 6-for-13 from the floor and made a career-best 12 of his 16 free throw attempts to go along with two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Freshman Roy Mabrey (Belmar, N.J.) scored 18 points on 6 of 10 shooting, including 2 of 3 from behind the arc, while senior Jack Keough (Owego, N.Y.) netted 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field and a perfect 2 of 2 at the stripe, while adding four boards and two steals.
Tied at four early on, Mabrey ignited an 11-2 run with a 3-pointer at the 17:19 mark. Layups by Keough, followed by a Mabrey jumper and a layup from senior Hakeem Williams (Spring Valley, N.Y.), ran the score to 15-6 just 5:16 in. Saint Michael's scored 11 of the next 15 points, however, and closed the gap to just a pair at 19-17 with 11:48 remaining.
The Hawks used a 7-0 run later in the half to open up a 10-point lead at 34-24, but Saint Michael's answered with a 10-2 run that sliced it to two at 36-34 with 2:12 on the clock. A Mabrey trey just 19 seconds later pushed it back to five before Tom Ward closed the scoring with a jumper at the 1:13 mark, as Saint Anselm went into the break with a 39-36 advantage.
Mabrey had 12 at the half, while Keough and Harris posted 10 and seven, respectively.
Saint Anselm opened the half with jumpers from Mabrey and Harris to take a seven-point lead just 1:05 in. The Purple Knights would score five of the next six to cut it to three, but layups by Mabrey and Keough pushed it back to seven at 48-41 with 16:32 remaining. After a Mike Holton Jr. 3-pointer cut it to four, layups by Harris and classmate Dino Mallios (Winthrop, Mass.), followed by one of two at the line from Harris, gave the Hawks a 53-44 lead.
After a James Cambronne bucket, junior James Morse (Arundel, Maine) would score four straight points to spark a 6-0 spurt that gave the Hawks their largest lead of the game at 59-46 with 9:51 to go. Saint Michael's responded with an 8-2 run that sliced the deficit back to seven before freshman Andre King (Springfield, Mass.) drained his second trey of the contest to make it 64-54 with 7:06 left.
The lead was still eight when layups by Tyler Schilling sandwiched a Holton 3 to whittle the Saint Anselm lead down to just one at 71-70 with 2:55 to go. After Harris hit one of two at the line to make it a two-point game, he drained a huge jumper in the paint with 1:13 on the clock that made it a two-possession game at 74-70. Mallios would sink a pair of free throws with 22 seconds left that made it 76-70.
The Purple Knights would climb to within two on a Ward trey with seven second left, but the Hawks would hit three of their four shots at the line, including two by Harris with 1.5 seconds on the clock, to seal the win.
Morse finished with eight points and three rebounds, while King netted seven points. Mallios tallied four points, six rebounds, two assists and four steals.
Saint Anselm outshot Saint Michael's, 52.1 percent (25-48) to 48.2 percent (27-56), including 55 percent (11-20) to 46.4 percent (13-28) in the second half. Both teams shot well from deep with Saint Anselm holding a 54.5 percent (6-11) to 52.6 percent (10-19) edge. The Hawks outscored the Purple Knights in the paint, 32-24, and held a slim 28-26 edge on the glass.
Holton led all scorers with 30 points.
The Hawks return to action Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3:30 p.m. when they hit the road to take on American International College. The next home game for the Hawks is Saturday, Jan. 14 at 3:30 p.m. when they play host to Assumption College at Stoutenburgh.
