MANCHESTER, N.H. - Junior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) of the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team matched a career-high with 29 points, pushing the Hawks past Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday by a 97-82 score.
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Saint Anselm improves to 12-8 overall on the year and finds itself tied with Bentley for second place in the Northeast Division of the Northeast-10 Conference with an 8-5 league record. Southern Connecticut State falls to 11-8 on the year and to 7-6 versus the conference.
Paul poured home 29 points, with help from a perfect 11-for-11 performance from the free throw line, and also hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds. Sophomore Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) joined Paul in playing all 40 minutes, finishing with 21 points and six assists. Freshman Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) had 15 points in 21 minutes.
Freshman Matt Relihan (Lynnfield, Mass.) had a career afternoon, scoring 18 points in 22 minutes off the bench. He poured home three treys and added five rebounds and two steals to his stat line. Collectively, the Hawks outrebounded the Owls, 37-to-26, and also shot north of 57% from the floor in the game.
Southern Connecticut State opened up a game-high lead of six with only 3:51 elapsed. The Hawks responded to take the lead with six consecutive points from Paul and a go-ahead jumper in the paint by Arbuckle with 13:30 left in the opening half.
The Hawks lead grew to 10 points, 32-22, following back-to-back Paul free throws with 8:42 to go. The Owls quickly cut down the advantage, scoring 12 consecutive points to own a 34-32 lead with 5:57 left in the opener. The Hawks held on to a one point lead at halftime, 42-41, thanks to a last-second jumper from Paul.
Playing to a 58-58 score with 14:40 to go, the Hawks pulled away thanks to the hot-shooting Relihan. The freshman poured home three triples, all in the second half, to create distance from Southern Connecticut State. His final one of the stanza sparked what turned into a 19-6 scoring run that elevated the Hawks into the lead by double-digits.
The Owls, who ousted the Hawks from last season's Northeast-10 Conference postseason in the Quarterfinals, were led by 21 points from C.J. Seaforth.
Saint Anselm returns to action this Wednesday, Feb. 5, taking on Assumption at 7:30 p.m. on the road.
