MANCHESTER, N.H. – Sophomore Roy Mabrey (Belmar, N.J.) registered 15 points, six rebounds and six assists, and classmate Chris Santo (Cherry Hill, N.J.) posted 14 points and five rebounds off the bench, as the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team held off a late rally to capture a 66-65 victory against American International College on Saturday afternoon at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
The Hawks, who never trailed in the game, have now won nine of their last 10, including six straight, and improve to 11-2 on the season, including 7-2 in Northeast-10 play. The win was the 499th career victory for head coach Keith Dickson. The Yellow Jackets dip to 5-8, 2-7 NE-10.
Mabrey was 6-for-14 from the field, including 2-for-5 from deep, while adding two steals and a block. Santo was an efficient 6 of 9 in his 26 minutes off the pine. Freshman Mike McCahey (Clarkstown, N.Y.) was also in double figures for the Hawks with 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting, including 3 of 4 from long range, to go along with six boards.
Saint Anselm led by 19 at 53-34 with 14:14 remaining in the contest when Sesoo Ikpah knocked down a jumper to start a 7-0 run that made it a 12-point game with 13:02 left. After McCahey halted the run with a 3, Janek Schmidkunz bookended another 7-0 spurt with a pair of 3-pointers that brought the Yellow Jackets within eight midway through the half.
The deficit was nine at the 7:31 mark when a Ricky Hudson trey made it 59-53. Hudson then hit a jumper before Spencer Braithwaite and Mark Ellis Jr. each hit a pair of free throws to knot the game at 59-all with 4:39 to play. It was the first time all game the Hawks were not in the lead.
Junior John Nielsen (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) drilled a 3 just over a minute later to give the Hawks a small cushion, but a pair of Hudson free throws pulled AIC within one at 62-61 with 2:23 left. After Santo made one of two at the line, he knocked down a big jumper that put the home team in the lead by four, 65-61, with 1:06 to go. Junior Dino Mallios (Winthrop, Mass.) then sank one of two at the stripe to make it a five-point game with 37 seconds left.
Hudson made it a one-possession game again six seconds later when he dropped in a layup to trim it to three. Braithwaite then stole the ensuing inbounds pass and put back his own miss to make it just a one-point game with 26 seconds left. After AIC called a timeout, the Hawks tried to inbound, but called a timeout of their own with the five-second clock winding down.
The Hawks threw it in with just over 25 seconds on the clock, but Al Shabbaz Jabateh intercepted the pass on the near sideline. The Yellow Jackets ran the clock down to 15 seconds before calling timeout to draw up one final play.
AIC once again ran more time off the clock, getting it down to six seconds before Braithwaite drove right at the top of the key and went in for a layup that floated over the front of the rim and caromed off the back of the rim and out to the weak side. Ellis grabbed the rebound on the low block and put up a fadeway that banked off the glass and off the front of the rim. The rebound was batted out to the middle of the paint where Ikpah collected it, but his shot as time expired clanged off the back of the iron and Saint Anselm escaped with the victory.
Mallios chipped in four points, six assists and four rebounds on the afternoon.
After a Dominic Borelli (Westbrook, Maine) jumper to begin the game, 3-pointers from McCahey, senior James Morse (Arundel, Maine) and Mabrey helped the Hawks open up an 11-3 lead just over three minutes in. McCahey then knocked down a jumper and the Hawks led by 10 with 15:31 remaining in the opening half.
Jumpers by Braithwaite and Ellis cut it to six over a minute later, but seven straight points from Santo widened that gap back to 13 at 20-7 with 12:35 to play. The lead was 11 when a McCahey 3-pointer touched off a 9-0 run that gave the Hawks their largest lead of the game at 31-11 with 8:25 left. Freshman Victor Joshua (New Haven, Conn.) followed McCahey's big shot with a pair of baskets that made it an 18-point game with 9:49 on the clock. The Hawks had shot 12-for-14 (.857) as a team to that point in the game. Santo then made a jumper over a minute later to close the run.
A 3 from Braithwaite seized the run and an Ikpah layup trimmed the deficit to 15 with 6:39 remaining. The gap was 16 at the end of the half when Mabrey tipped-in his own miss as time expired to send the Hawks into the locker room with a commanding 45-27 lead.
Mabrey and Santo had 13 and 11 points, respectively, at the half.
Borelli opened the second-half scoring with a jumper that made the Saint Anselm lead an even 20 just 1:31 in. The teams twice traded scores before a Schmidkunz trey was answered by a Mabrey layup that gave the Hawks a 53-34 lead with 14:46 remaining. The Yellow Jackets would begin their furious comeback just 32 seconds later.
Borelli netted eight points on 4 of 6 shooting to go along with five rebounds.
Saint Anselm outshot AIC, 50 percent (27-54) to 42.9 percent (24-56), including 61.3 percent (19-31) to 36.7 percent (11-30) in the first half. AIC returned the favor from behind the arc (.529-.467) and in the second half (.500-.348). Rebounds were even at 33 apiece, with the Hawks holding a 24-22 edge in the paint. The Yellow Jackets turned the ball over just 11 times and forced 13 Hawk turnovers.
Schmidkunz and Braithwaite finished with 20 and 18, respectively, for AIC.
The Hawks return to action Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. when they play host to Pace University at Stoutenburgh. Stay up-to-date with the latest news, including game previews and recaps, directly from the Saint Anselm College athletic department by liking us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/STAHawks) and following us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/STAHawks).
