MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team will be making its 37th appearance in the Northeast-10 Conference playoffs this Sunday, Mar. 1. The top-seeded Hawks will host the fourth-seeded Setters from Pace University at 4 p.m. in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.

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Ranked fifth in the East Region of NCAA Division II, according to the most recent regional rankings released by the NCAA, the Hawks enter the NE10 postseason with an 11-1 record at home and a season-best winning streak of eight games. Saint Anselm wrapped up its third consecutive Northeast Division regular-season title with a win over Bentley in the season finale.

Pace, the fourth seed in the Southwest Division, had to take on Southern New Hampshire in a First Round fixture played on Friday. The Setters, who had hosting privileges, eased past the Penmen, 90-75, to extend their season and enter Sunday's game with a 19-10 overall record.

The two teams met on Saturday, Jan. 11 with the Hawks coming away with a 79-74 victory over Pace in Pleasantville, N.Y. The Hawks overcame a late four-point deficit with 3:23 to go, using a 9-0 scoring run that put Saint Anselm ahead for good. Sophomore Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) posted a career-high 24 points with two steals and an assist for the Hawks.

TICKET INFORMATION: Adults will be charged $10 with children and senior citizen tickets gaining entry for $5. Students with a valid ID from an NE10 program will be admitted for $2. Saint Anselm students will be admitted free of charge with the presentation of a valid College ID. One ticket will be valid for both the men's NE10 Quarterfinals game and the women's postseason contest slated for 2 p.m. against New Haven.

LAST TIME OUT: Saint Anselm led by as many as 41 points on Tuesday night, locking down the Northeast Division's Regular Season Championship for the third consecutive season with a convincing 94-55 win over Bentley University.

The Hawks allowed a season-low 55 points to Bentley (17-11, 9-10 NE10). The margin of victory for Saint Anselm, 39 points, is far and away the largest in a Hawks victory over Bentley in program history. Saint Anselm has also won 11 of the last 13 games over the Falcons in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.

Junior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) finished with an impressive stat line, notching 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Classmate Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) had a big night for Saint Anselm, finishing with 16 points and 13 boards, giving him his fifth double-double of the season.

SCOUTING SAINT ANSELM

• The Hawks opened the season ranked as high as No. 12 in NCAA Division II, according to the D2SIDA National Media Poll revealed on Nov. 6, 2019. Saint Anselm posted six wins in its first seven games before losing three out of four contests in the month of December. After a five-win month of January, the Hawks went the entire month of February without a defeat (7-0).
• Saint Anselm, the reigning NCAA Division II East Region champions, sees itself ranked fifth in the official rankings released by the NCAA earlier this week. The Hawks trail only Bridgeport, St. Thomas Aquinas, Jefferson and Le Moyne – the Hawks lost at home to Bridgeport on Wednesday, Dec. 18, but defeated Jefferson the game before, 71-70, in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
• The Hawks are a commanding 39-4 when playing in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium since the start of the 2017-18 season.
• From a wins and losses perspective, Saint Anselm has played the hardest schedule in the Northeast-10 Conference while ranking 15th in the entire country with its opposition to date boasting a collective 56.3% winning percentage.
• Saint Anselm leads the NE10 with 29 defensive rebounds per game, 403 free throws made, a scoring margin of 7.3 and an average of 39.15 rebounds per contest. The Hawks' winning percentage of 69.2%, three-point field goal percentage (38.9%), scoring offense (83.1), rebound margin (4.3), free throw attempts (530) and assists per game (16.1) all rank second in the league.
• Each of the Hawks five starters is averaging over 12.1 points per game, led by Paul and his 18.9 scoring average. Saint Anselm has not had five starters all reach double-digit point scoring totals, on average, since the 2016-17 season.
• Paul, who reached 1,000 career points earlier in the season, is having a breakout campaign for the Hawks, setting career-highs in minutes per game (35.7), three-point field goals made (10), free throw percentage (80.6%), rebounds (199), rebounds per game (7.7), assists (64), steals (29), point scoring (491) and points per game (18.9).
• Paul has reached double-digit point scoring totals in all but two games on the season and has poured home more than 20 points on 12 occasions. He racked up a career-high 29 points in two games this season, the first at Southern New Hampshire on Nov. 26 and, most recently, against Southern Connecticut State at home on Feb. 1.
• Paul's 1,325 career points through 89 games ranks 22nd in program history, tying Bob TIminski '94. His 343 free throws made stands as the 11th most in a Hawks career.
• Senior Danny Evans (Leeds, United Kingdom), a transfer from the University of Maine prior to the 2018-19 season, has notched 14.3 points per contest across 26 games this season. He has set single-season highs in rebounding (150 5.8 rpg), assists (82), and points scored (372). Evans scored a personal-best 26 points versus Adelphi on Jan. 18 and has recorded at least one triple in each of his previous 12 contests.
• Evans has seen the court in 121 games between his time at UMaine and Saint Anselm, ranking 16th among active NCAA Division II student-athletes.
• Freshman Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) has averaged 14.3 points per game in his first season on the Hilltop. Ranking second on the team with 15.3 points per tilt against league foes, he has poured home a career-best 31 points against Saint Michael's in mid-November and has since went on to log 19 double-digit point scoring performances.
• Tention is shooting nearly 50% from the floor (107-for-215) with 60 of his 130 attempts from beyond the arc finding the bottom of the basket. With an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.37, Tention ranks second among NE10 student-athletes. His 46.2% three-point field goal percentage stands atop the league and his 36.05 minutes played per contest is the league's third-finest figure.
• Tention's 46.5% three-point field goal percentage is the eighth-best mark in single-season team history. His 36.1 minutes played per game is sixth in single-season annals.
• Suhr-Jessen has posted 12.1 points per game as a junior, a career-high figure that was helped along by improving his accuracy at the free throw line by nearly six percent. His 7.4 rebounds per contest, including two offensive boards per game, is a career-high figure, as is his 2.1 assists per game.
• Junior Alonzo Jackson (Medford, Mass.) has posted 57 career blocks for Saint Anselm, cracking the program's top-10 list. His 26 blocks this season trails the all-time leader, Branimir Zeko '10, and his 30 rejections in 2009-10.
• Freshman Matt Relihan (Lynnfield, Mass.) has found himself as a key member of the Hawks reserves. He is averaging three points per game for Saint Anselm across the first 23 games of his career. Sophomore Joey Belli (Wayne, N.J.) is matching Relihan in points per game production while handing out 38 assists and committing just 14 miscues.

SCOUTING PACE

• Pace, one of the finest defensive programs in the East Region, comes to town fresh off a key road victory over Le Moyne on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The win against one of the top programs in the Southwest Division locked up a first-round home postseason game, which was won by Pace over Southern New Hampshire on Friday.
• The Setters come to the Queen City ranked atop the NE10 in several statistical categories, including assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4), blocks per game (4.4), field goal percentage defense (42.1%), scoring defense (68.4), steals per game (8.5), three-point field goal defense (33.8%), total blocks (237) and total steals (3.4).
• Pace is paced by the league's top scorer in 2019-20, Peyton Wejnert, and his 23.6 points per contest. HE also ranks first in free throws made (166) and free throws attempted (235). His 613 points ranks second in the conference, as do his 218 field goals made and his 12 double-doubles on the season. He has reached 30-plus points in a game on seven occasions.
• Wejnert is seventh on the program's all-time point scoring list with 1,683 career points and is one of just three student-athletes in team annals with more than 1,600 career points and 700 career rebounds.
• Brandon Jacobs leads the NE10 in assists per game (7.8), minutes played per game (36.19), total assists (218) and minutes played (1,017). Jacobs' assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.25 is the conference's third-best mark and his free throw percentage of 78.7% stands sixth among NE10 qualifiers.
• Ray Montilus leads all NE10 student-athletes with 2.23 steals per game and his 58 steals on the year trails only Le Moyne's Ryan Roland (59). Bryan Powell, in his first season with the Setters, has averaged 1.33 rejections and 2.81 offensive rebounds per game, both ranking in the top five among conference student-athletes.

NE10 POSTSEASON ALL-TIME

• Saint Anselm has won eight NE10 postseason championships, the most by any league member since its inception in 1980-81. In all-time championship tournament play, the Hawks have posted a 51-30 overall record (.630) and have made it to the semifinals 23 times prior.
• The last conference championship came in 2016-17 where the Hawks handed Southern New Hampshire, the Northeast Division champions, a 73-68 loss on their own court.
• Pace is making its 16th appearance in the NE10 postseason and came into this season with a 5-15 record in the playoffs. The Setters are in search of their first NE10 postseason title, having made the semifinals just twice before since joining the league prior to the 1997-98 season.

HEAD COACHES

• Head Coach Keith Dickson of the Saint Anselm men's basketball team was named the Coach of the Decade by D2EastHoops.com earlier this month. In his 34th season at the helm of the Hawks men's basketball program, Dickson has guided the Hawks for over 1,000 career games on the Hilltop.
• Promoted to Head Coach prior to the 1986-87 season, the long-time bench boss has racked up a 661-342 (.659) record that includes 19 NCAA Division II postseason appearances, eight Northeast-10 postseason championships and two regional titles.
• Dickson's 661 career wins place him 59th all-time in NCAA history, spanning all three divisions. He is 17th in wins among active coaches in the NCAA and sixth among active coaches in the division. Dickson has won five NE10 Coach of the Year awards and is far and away the longest-tenured Head Coach in Saint Anselm history, across all sports.
• Matt Healing was named Pace head coach prior to the 2015-16 campaign, racking up a 59-84 record (.413). In each of the last three seasons, Healing has improved his team's fortunes, increasing the winning percentage in each campaign – the squad's 19 wins this year are the most in a season since 2006-07.

ALL-TIME vs. PACE

• Saint Anselm owns a 23-10 record against Pace in the all-time series that dates back to Nov. 30, 1997. The Hawks have won 11 of the previous 12 meetings between both programs and, in all-time NE10 postseason play, Saint Anselm is 2-0.
• At home against Pace, Saint Anselm has only lost in regulation twice and never by more than 10 points.