Box Score
MANCHESTER, N.H. – In the first ever Northeast-10 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament meeting between Saint Anselm College and Southern New Hampshire University, the #4 seeded Penmen came out on top with a 75-59 upset victory over the #2 Hawks on Wednesday night at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium in Manchester, N.H.
Saint Anselm (21-7) will now await word on an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, as the Hawks were the #1 team in the East Region in the NCAA Regional Polls released on Wednesday afternoon. Southern New Hampshire (21-10), who has won four-straight, advances to the NE-10 Championship game on Saturday afternoon at Bentley University.
The Hawks shot a season-low 38.7% (24-of-62) from the floor on the night while connecting on only 3-of-22 (13.6%) three-pointers in the game. Meanwhile, SNHU connected on 46.6% (27-of-58) of their shots and hit 6-of-19 (31.6%) on threes and knocked down 15-of-16 (93.8%) of their free throws. Saint Anselm won the rebounding battle, 36-34, but committed 11 turnovers to just seven for the Penmen, leading to 15 points off turnovers for the visitors.
Victor Joshua (New Haven, Conn.) led the Hawks with 14 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. Mike McCahey (Clarkstown, N.Y.) added 14 points of his own, while Chris Braley (Newport, Maine) scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds. Tim Guers (Langhorne, Pa.) had nine points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal, with Harrison Taggart (Wallingford, Vt.) grabbing a game-high nine rebounds to go with seven points and three assists in the setback.
Rodney Sanders led the Penmen with 22 points and six rebounds, while Chris Walters added 16 points and eight rebounds on the night. Adrian Oliveira poured in 14 points of his own, with BJ Cardarelli scoring seven points to go with seven rebounds.
After SNHU scored the first two buckets of the game, Guers and McCahey answered with back-to-back layups to knot the score at 4-4 in the early going. The Penmen answered with a 10-0 run capped off by a Cardarelli triple that forced a Saint Anselm timeout with the Hawks trailing 14-4 with 15:18 remaining in the first half. Another McCahey layup two minutes later cut the deficit to only eight at 18-10 and Taggart later knocked down a fade-away jumper to make it a 19-12 game, however, Chris Walters buried two-straight threes to extend the SNHU lead to 27-14 with 8:54 to play in the half.
A three-point play from Victor Joshua pulled the Hawks back to within nine at 27-18, but a 7-2 run by the Penmen pushed the visitors ahead 39-20 as Saint Anselm used another timeout with 3:56 to play. Braley and Guers both scored layups in the final minute of the half to trim the SNHU lead to just 43-28 headed into the break.
The two teams traded buckets out of the break until Tim Guers hit the first three of the night for Saint Anselm to make it a 49-35 game with 14:45 remaining. SNHU had the answer again, rattling off a 10-0 run, including five points from Sanders, to pull in front 59-35 and just over 10 minutes to play.
Saint Anselm tried to chip away at the Penmen lead and after McCahey tipped home his own miss and Joshua knocked down a triple, the Hawks saw themselves only down 15 at 67-52 with 4:38 remaining in regulation. The Hawks tried to turn up the pressure on defense, but Oliveira drew a foul and hit two free throws. On the next Saint Anselm possession Braley scored inside to keep it at 15, but that would be as close as they would get as SNHU scored four-straight points to go up 75-56 with 1:20 to play. Harrison Taggart would hit a three in the closing minute of the contest to give the game its final score of 75-59.
The game marked the 64th meeting all-time between the two programs, and first postseason meeting since an NCAA Regional matchup in 1993 hosted by the then, New Hampshire College.
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