MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senior Shannon Ryan (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) had a career-high 38 points against Southern New Hampshire University on Tuesday, but the visiting Penmen snapped an eight-game losing skid to the Hawks with an 88-83 victory in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
Box Score
Saint Anselm falls out of a tie for first place with Stonehill, dropping to 16-6 overall on the year and to 12-4 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents. Southern New Hampshire moves to 14-10 overall and to 7-9 on the year versus league foes.
Ryan poured home 38 points with 17 rebounds, establishing a career-high mark for scoring for the second time against Southern New Hampshire – she had previously logged a personal-high 33 points at the Stan Spirou Field House on Nov. 26.
The 38 points are the second-most by any Hawks student-athlete in team history, trailing only the all-time record of 44 set by Rachel Jackson '85 on Nov. 28, 1984 at Dartmouth.
Junior Grace Guachione (Pittsfield, Mass.) logged 17 points, connecting on three shots from beyond the arc to lead her team. Classmate Peyton Steinman (Pittsfield, Mass.) had 13 points with five rebounds.
The Hawks led by as many as nine points early in the contest, opening up leads of 11-2, 13-4 and 15-6. In that span, four members of the Saint Anselm starting five had at least two points.
From that point on, it was all Southern New Hampshire as the Penmen posted a 42-28 scoring run that catapulted the visitors into the lead, 48-43, with 6:57 to go in the third quarter. Southern New Hampshire ended up scoring at least 20 points in each of the final three stanzas on the way to the win.
Saint Anselm still held a lead of six points with 25 seconds left in the third quarter, but the Penmen rallied all the way back to take a five-point lead with 3:37 left in regulation time with back-to-back triples from Sarah Deyo and Molly Terry.
Down by five points with just about two minutes to go, Ryan scored her team's next five points to draw the game even with 1:09 left. Southern New Hampshire quickly re-established the lead with a Karlee Ziliak jumper and never looked back – the Hawks were 0-for-2 from the floor down the stretch and had a turnover.
Ziliak finished with a career-high 27 points for the Penmen. Southern New Hampshire shot nearly 50% from the floor (31-for-64) and had 37 points off the bench.
The Hawks will recharge with a week long hiatus before heading to Franklin Pierce on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m.
