ALBANY, N.Y. – Sophomore Harrison Taggart (Wallingford, Vt.) and junior Victor Joshua (New Haven, Conn.) each scored 18 points as the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team held off a late rush from the College of Saint Rose to pull out a 77-74 win Saturday at Nolan Gymnasium.
The Hawks win for the fourth time in five games, including their third straight, to improve to 12-5 on the season and 9-4 in Northeast-10 play. The Golden Knights sink to 5-14, 3-9 NE-10.
Taggart poured in 16 points in a second half in which the Hawks received only five minutes from leading scorer Chris Santo (Cherry Hill, N.J.) due to foul trouble. Taggart shot 7 of 16 from the field, including 2 of 8 from downtown, and 2 of 2 at the line, while adding five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. Joshua, who netted 11 points in the first half, went 6-for-14 from the floor, including 2-for-4 from deep, and 4-for-4 from the stripe, to go along with two assists and a pair of steals.
Senior Roy Mabrey (Belmar, N.J.) also helped buoy the Hawks in the opening stanza by contributing 11 of his 15 points (6-14 FG, 2-6 3-FG). He also collected four rebounds. Classmate Mark Schulze (Townsend, Mass.) was also in double figures with 13 points (4-9 FG, 1-3 3-FG, 4-6 FT), a career-best seven boards and four assists.
Jack Jones led Saint Rose with 18 points, while Jalaun Taylor added 16.
Saint Anselm opened the game on a 10-4 run that spanned the first 3:24 and was capped by 3-pointers from Mabrey and Schulze, but seven straight points from the Golden Knights gave them their first lead of the afternoon at 11-10 with 14:21 remaining in the opening half.
The teams then traded the lead four times before a Mabrey trey swapped it for a fifth and keyed a 9-0 run that was closed with four points from sophomore Grant Mackay (No. Berwick, Scotland) to open up a 23-15 advantage with 8:54 left.
A jumper from Mabrey two minutes later increased the lead to nine and a Mabrey trifecta less than a minute after that nudged the lead to an even 10 at 32-22 with 6:06 on the clock, but Jones and Taylor combined for five straight points before a Jamaal Greenwood layup pulled Saint Rose within one score at 32-29 with 4:52 to go.
A Joshua 3-pointer and a Santo layup ran the lead back to eight less than 40 seconds later, but the Golden Knights would chip away and get a Chris Dorgler layup inside the final 10 seconds of the half to slice their deficit at the break to 42-38.
Dorgler picked up where he left off in the second half, draining a 3-pointer to begin an 8-2 run that was closed with a Jones triple that gave Saint Rose a 46-44 edge less than two minutes in.
Taggart cut off the run with a 3-pointer that gave Saint Anselm the lead for good and triggered a 9-0 run that also received four points from Schulze to open up a 53-46 lead with 15:20 to go.
The margin would hover between seven and three over the next seven-plus minutes until a 3 by Taggart and seven straight points from Joshua seemed to break the game open and give the Hawks their largest lead of the contest at 75-62 with 5:39 left.
But Saint Rose would not go away as a Dorgler three-point play set in a motion a run of 12 consecutive points, including eight-in-a-row from Taylor, to slice the deficit to 75-74 with under two minutes to go.
The Golden Knights missed a chance to tie it with a free throw and both teams would come up empty on a handful of possessions before Taggart drilled two free throws to make it a three-point game with 12 seconds on the clock. Saint Rose had one final shot at the tie, but Taylor's 3-pointer missed the mark and Saint Anselm held on for the victory.
Santo, who snapped a 17-game double-digit scoring streak that dated back to last season, finished with four points (1-8 FG, 2-2 FT), 10 rebounds and three assists in just 19 minutes – his lowest total since the NCAA East Regional semifinal against Bloomfield last March 16. Mackay, who played a career-high 23 minutes in Santo's place, chipped in six points (1-1 FG, 4-4 FT) and four boards.
Saint Rose outshot Saint Anselm, 55.6 percent (30-54) to 41.3 percent (26-63), while the Hawks returned the favor from beyond the arc, 38.1 percent (8-21) to 31.3 percent (5-16), and shot better at the line, 81 percent (17-21) to 75 percent (9-12). The Golden Knights won the paint (30-22), but the Hawks captured the glass, 38-29, including 17-6 on the offensive end, and turned the ball over just nine times, while forcing 14 Saint Rose mistakes, for advantages in both second chance points (22-7) and points off turnovers (17-10).
Mabrey finished the day with 1,661 career points to pass Joe Ingegneri, who scored 1,652 points from 1996-00, for eighth place on the program's all-time scoring list.
The Hawks return to action Saturday, Jan. 31 at 3:30 p.m. when they play host to American International College at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium. 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.
