RINDGE, N.H. – Down by 10 points late in Wednesday's game at Franklin Pierce University, the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team scored 21 of the game's final 28 points to earn a 68-64 comeback victory over the Ravens.
Box Score
Saint Anselm moves to 16-8 overall on the season and to 12-5 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents, maintaining first place in the Northeast Division with Wednesday's result. Franklin Pierce sits in third place with an overall mark of 15-9 and a league record of 10-7.
Junior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) scored 18 points while classmate Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) posted 17 points alongside 14 rebounds, matching a career-high in the latter category. Senior Danny Evans (Leeds, United Kingdom) had 13 points and sophomore Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points.
Evans reached 200 career assists in the victory, dishing out five on Wednesday to give him 148 in a Hawks uniform and 31 with the University of Maine in 2016-17.
Down by eight, 62-54, with 6:40 left in regulation time, the Hawks rallied to cut the score to 64-63 with less than three minutes to go in regulation time. After a three-point basket by Franklin Pierce that missed the mark, the Hawks went ahead by a 66-64 score with 2:16 left thanks to a long triple from freshman Matt Relihan (Lynnfield, Mass.).
Neither team would make a basket until Evans logged a fast-break layup in the final 10 seconds of regulation time. A stout Hawks defense limited Franklin Pierce to only two made baskets, both layups, in the final seven minutes of regulation time. In the final 3:54 of play, the Ravens were 0-for-6 (all three's) with two turnovers and two fouls.
Through the first 15 minutes of play, both teams made only six field goals apiece. The Hawks led by a game-high seven points with just under five minutes elapsed, but neither team could pull away for a lead larger than six points in the final 10 minutes of the opener.
With the score tied at 18 with 4:13 to go, Franklin Pierce pulled away briefly with a 6-2 scoring run. With his team down by five points in the final 39 seconds of the first half, Relihan hit a clutch jumper with eight seconds to go that cut the Ravens lead to only three points, 30-27, at the break.
Down by just three points at halftime, the Hawks took a brief one-point lead shortly into the second half. Trailing by a 31-30 score, Franklin Pierce scored the game's next six points to take a 36-31 lead with 17:51 to go. From there, an Evans layup would precede a 7-0 scoring run by the hosts, who took their first double-digit lead of the evening, 43-33.
Franklin Pierce would lead once again by 10 points, 57-47, with 9:33 to go in the game. Falu Seck propelled the Ravens with 17 points in only 16 second-half minutes, finishing with a game-high 22 points. Isaiah Moore had 19 points on the day with Doyon Fadojutimi pouring home 11 points.
The Hawks held statistical edges in rebounding (49-to-35) and shooting for the game (39.3%-to-35.8%). Saint Anselm enjoyed a 15-to-6 edge in fast-break points.
Saint Anselm heads to the Green Mountain State this Saturday, Feb. 22, taking on Saint Michael's at 3:30 p.m.
