Box Score

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team rallied for a 65-57 win over Bentley University on Saturday afternoon at the Stoutenburgh Gymnasium in Manchester, N.H.

The Hawks improve to 17-8 overall and 13-7 in the NE-10, while the Falcons drop to 21-5 and 15-5 in league games. Saint Anselm's win on Saturday snapped a streak of 23-straight losses to Bentley dating back to the 2002 season.

In a pregame ceremony, the Hawks honored their two seniors Raquel Johnson (Inglewood, Calif.) and Nancy Stablein (Shelton, Conn.) for their contributions to Saint Anselm and its athletic department.

Candace Andrews (Boston, Mass.) led all scorers with 23 points, scoring 15 alone in the fourth quarter, to go with a pair of steals to lead the Hawks to victory. Caitlyn Abela (North Easton, Mass.) added 15 points, while Clairee Putnam (Windham, N.H.) hit both of her threes and two free throws en route to eight points. Samnell Vonleh (Swampscott, Mass.) blocked a career-high seven shots, while Kaila Duarte (Dorchester, Mass.) grabbed 11 rebounds off the bench.

Victoria Lux led Bentley with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Jen Gemma added 18 points of her own in the setback. Megan Lewis joined them in double-figures with 12 points to go with five rebounds and four assists. Jane White posted a game-high seven assists for the Falcons.

Bentley scored the first seven points of the game and eventually took a 12-2 lead following a triple from Jen Gemma. Caitlyn Abela nailed a three of her own to make it a 12-5 game, and a free throw from Samnell Vonleh cut the deficit in half at 12-6 with just under two minutes to play. Vonleh kept it a six point game with a score inside, but Victoria Lux buried a three as time expired to give the Falcons a 17-8 lead after one quarter.

A three from Clairee Putnam made it a six point game again early in the second quarter and Abela canned a jumper to pull the Hawks to within four at 19-15. Bentley responded with a 6-2 run capped off by a Gemma layup, but the Hawks battled their way back into the game as a pair of Ali Glennon (Bedford, N.H.) free throws followed by back-to-back threes from Putnam and Abela tied the game at 25-all with 36 seconds to play. Macchi Smith would go 1-for-2 at the free throw line in the closing seconds of the half to give the Falcons a 26-25 lead at the break.

The two teams traded baskets to open the third quarter and a Glennon triple gave the Hawks a four point cushion with 8:08 to play in the period. Bentley had the answer again as they used a 13-0 run to take a 43-34 lead with 4:41 remaining. A 7-0 run capped off by a Vonleh layup inside pulled the Hawks back to within two, but Gemma knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Falcons a 45-41 lead headed into the final quarter of play.

Two-straight layups from Andrews to open the fourth quarter tied the game at 45-all with 8:47 remaining. The lead changed hands several times over the next three-plus minutes until a Vonleh layup followed by an Abela jumper gave the Hawks a 54-40 lead and forced a Bentley timeout. Andrews sandwiched perfect trips to the free throw line around a pair of Glennon free throws to give Saint Anselm its largest lead of the game at 60-50 with 1:08 to play.

Megan Lewis knocked down a three to cut the lead back to seven, but Andrews knocked down two more free throws to keep it a nine point game. Lewis hit another three on the next possession to make it a 62-56 game, but that would be as close as the Falcons would get as the Hawks went 3-for-4 at the free throw line down the stretch to pull away for the 65-57 win.

The Hawks shot 44.7% (21-of-47) from the field in the game while holding the Falcons to just 29.2% (21-of-72) shooting. Bentley won both the rebounding battle (43-37) and turnover margin (18-23), but the difference in the game came at the charity stripe as the Hawks went 17-of-22 from the free throw line compared to 8-of-12 shooting for Bentley.

Saint Anselm wraps up the NE-10 regular season on Tuesday night when the Hawks travel to cross-town rival Southern New Hampshire University for a 5:30 p.m. that will be broadcast on NESNplus.

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