MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senior Chris Santo (Cherry Hill, N.J.) notched his second straight double-double with 30 points and 10 rebounds, while junior Ryan Hartung (Haverhill, Mass.) and senior Mark Schulze (Townsend, Mass.) each hit for career highs, as the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team cruised past Saint Michael's College, 97-76, Wednesday evening at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
The Hawks win for the sixth time in seven games to improve to 15-6 on the season, including 12-5 in Northeast-10 play. Saint Anselm snaps a second-place tie with Saint Michael's in the Northeast-10's Northeast Division standings and now owns the tiebreak after sweeping the season series from the Purple Knights. The Hawks have won 22 of 27 against Saint Michael's, as well as 11 of 12 and six straight overall. The Hawks, who are now 7-2 at home this season, have won five-in-a-row at Stoutenburgh, with all of those victories coming by 20 or more points. Saint Anselm has also now won 23 of 29 against Saint Michael's on the Hilltop, including six straight. The Purple Knights, who had won 7 of 10, including three straight, fall to 15-7, 11-6 NE-10.
Santo's 15th career double-double and fifth of the season came as he shot 12-for-19 from the field, including 1-for-2 from deep, and 5-for-6 from the line. Santo, who has not scored fewer than 23 points over his last four games (28.5 ppg), which include a pair of 30-point performances, filled out the stat sheet with four assists, a block and a steal.
Hartung netted a career-best 19 points (6-9 FG, 5-8 3-FG, 2-2 FT), while Schulze scored a career-high 17 (6-7 FG, 5-6 3-FG) to go along with five assists, three rebounds, three steals and a block. The five treys are also a career best for both Hartung and Schulze. Sophomore Harrison Taggart (Wallingford, Vt.) was also in double figures with 12 points (4-10 FG, 4-9 3-FG, six boards and five helpers.
Corey Crawford II led Saint Michael's with 19 points, 10 rebounds and three assists, while Mike Holton Jr. added 13 points.
Santo began the game by scoring the Hawks' first six points to spark a 9-2 run that Taggart capped with a 3-pointer less than two minutes in. After a 4-0 spurt for Saint Michael's, Saint Anselm responded with a 9-1 burst – with four points from Santo – to open up an 18-7 advantage with 14:45 remaining in the opening half.
With the lead 12 at 30-18 with 10:44 on the clock and starting point guard Victor Joshua (New Haven, Conn.) already on the bench in foul trouble, Santo picked up his second and also had to head to the pine. The new group on the floor responded by ripping off a 25-11 run – with 11 points from Hartung, eight from Schulze and six from Taggart – to break open a 55-29 advantage with 1:34 left before halftime.
Crawford would end the stanza with five straight points to trim the Saint Anselm lead at the break to 58-37.
Saint Michael's would eventually whittle its deficit down to 15 at 69-54 with 13:36 remaining, but Saint Anselm again responded with a 22-7 blitz – with nine points from Santo and six from Hartung – to open its largest lead of the night at 91-61 with 6:53 left. The stretch was fittingly bookended by triples from Schulze and Hartung.
The Purple Knights would run off 11 consecutive points to trim the gap to 19 and the Hawks would score six of the game's final 10 points to close it out.
Senior Roy Mabrey (Belmar, N.J.) chipped in seven points (3-9 FG, 1-4 3-FG), three assists and two rebounds, while Joshua also added seven points (3-6 FG, 1-2 FT) and three rebounds. Sophomore Grant Mackay (No. Berwick, Scotland) gave the Hawks some solid minutes off the bench with five points (1-2 FG, 3-4 FT), three rebounds and three assists.
Saint Anselm outshot Saint Michael's, 52.2 percent (35-67) to 44.1 percent (30-68), including a season-best 51.6 percent (16-31) to 39.1 percent (9-23) from beyond the arc. The Purple Knights won the glass (41-36) and the paint (34-32), but the Hawks featured a much better assist-to-turnover ratio (22/8-11/13) and held a 17-3 advantage in points off turnovers.
Mabrey finished the night with 1,728 points to move past Kris Tardio, who scored 1,726 points from 1996-00, for seventh place on the program's all-time scoring list.
The Hawks return to action Saturday, Feb. 14 at 3:30 p.m. when they take on Franklin Pierce University. The next home game for the Hawks is Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. when they play host to Merrimack College 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.
