MANCHESTER, N.H. – Junior Chris Santo (Cherry Hill, N.J.) scored a team-high 20 points and classmate Roy Mabrey (Belmar, N.J.) added 18 as the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team earned an 80-75 win against the College of Saint Rose on Saturday afternoon at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
The Hawks win for the seventh time in nine games to improve to 8-4 on the season, including 6-2 in Northeast-10 play, while the Golden Knights drop to 7-6, 4-3 NE-10.
Santo shot 8-for-14 from the floor, including 1-for-2 from beyond the arc, and 3-for-5 at the stripe, while pulling down nine rebounds. Mabrey was 6 of 12 from the field, including 2 of 6 from deep, and 4 of 5 from the line. Sophomore Mike McCahey (Clarkstown, N.Y.) posted 12 points (3-11 FG; 2-5 3-FG; 4-4 FT) and six boards, while senior John Nielsen (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) also added 12 points (4-11 FG; 4-11 3-FG) to go along with three rebounds and a pair of steals.
Dominykas Milka reached career highs with 33 points and 19 rebounds for Saint Rose.
The first five-plus minutes of the game featured four ties, three lead changes and a Saint Rose lead as high as three before sophomore Victor Joshua (New Haven, Conn.) knocked down a straightaway 3-pointer and then hit one of two from the stripe to give the Hawks an 18-14 lead with 12:26 remaining in the opening half.
After a McCahey triple pushed the Saint Anselm lead to five, a 5-0 run from the Golden Knights knotted the game at 23-all with 7:36 to play. Milka followed another Joshua basket with a pair layups that gave Saint Rose a two-point lead with five-and-a-half minutes to go, but back-to-back 3s from Nielsen lifted the Hawks to a 31-27 advantage with 4:41 on the clock.
Baskets from Milka and Tyler Sayre tied the game again, but a Santo layup, followed by a Mabrey trifecta, put the Hawks up five and they would take a 40-35 lead to the locker room.
With the lead still five early in the second half, a 6-1 spurt from the Hawks gave them their largest lead of the afternoon at 50-40 with 16:52 to play. The gap was still 10 over five minutes later when Saint Rose would slice it in half with five straight midway through the stanza.
Saint Anselm would answer back with a 5-0 run of its own – highlighted by another McCahey 3-pointer – but a 14-4 burst from the Golden Knights, including the first four from Travis Gill and six of the last eight from Milka, would tie the contest at 65-all with 4:54 remaining.
Nielsen would respond by drilling a monster 3, but baskets from Dan Mundweiler and Sayre put Saint Rose back in the lead at 69-68 with 3:06 to play. Senior Dino Mallios (Winthrop, Mass.) would find Santo with a great feed for a layup 24 seconds later and the Hawks would never trail again. Mallios added a basket to make it a three-point game, but a pair of Milka free throws on two occasions would keep the Golden Knights within a point.
It was Nielsen again, however, with his fourth and final 3-pointer of the day that gave the Hawks breathing room at 77-73 with 53 seconds left and helped them close the game on a 6-2 run to put it away.
Mallios finished with eight points (2-4 FG; 4-4 FT) six assists and three rebounds, while Joshua chipped in six points (2-4 FG; 1-2 3-FG; 1-2 FT), three steals and a pair of boards.
Sayre added 16 points and seven rebounds for Saint Rose.
Saint Rose narrowly outshot Saint Anselm, 44.6 percent (33-74) to 44.1 percent (26-59), while the Hawks returned the favor from long range, 35.7 percent (10-28) to 16.7 percent (1-6). The Golden Knights controlled the glass (44-32) and the paint (48-28), but the Hawks hit 18 of their 22 free throws, while the visitors knocked down 8 of 11. Saint Rose held a 15-5 advantage in second-chance points via a 16-5 edge on the offensive boards, while Saint Anselm featured the better assist-to-turnover ratio (14/16-8/16).
The Hawks return to action Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 3:30 p.m. when they take on the University of New Haven. The next home game for the Hawks is Saturday, Jan. 11 at 3:30 p.m. when they play host to Adelphi 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 and following us on Twitter @STAHawks.
