MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team extended its own conference record on Saturday, claiming its ninth Northeast-10 Conference postseason title with a thrilling 65-63 victory in overtime against the University of New Haven.
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The top-seeded Saint Anselm (21-8) team has earned the league's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. New Haven, the fifth seed from the Southwest Division, played in its third overtime contest of the NE10 postseason and sees its season come to a close at 15-15.
Winners of the 2019 NCAA Division II East Region Championship, Saint Anselm will learn its First Round opponent via the NCAA.com Selection Show that is scheduled to air Sunday, Mar. 8 at 10:30 p.m. The Hawks have won their last 11 games – Saint Anselm has not lost since a setback at Le Moyne on Jan. 25.
Saint Anselm was led by junior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.), who earned Most Outstanding Player of the NE10 tournament thanks to a dominant 27-point, 11-rebound performance against New Haven on Saturday. He was trailed by freshman Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) and his 18 points. Senior Danny Evans (Leeds, United Kingdom) posted 11 points.
The Hawks overcame a 13-point deficit to force overtime and eventually capture the team's first NE10 postseason championship since the 2016-17 season. Trailing by 10 points, 50-40, with 8:59 to go in regulation time, Saint Anselm closed the second half on a 14-4 scoring run to draw the game even at 54 as time expired. Paul had a game-tying layup in the paint with five seconds left.
Saint Anselm did not relinquish the lead in the overtime period, capturing the lead for good with a Paul three-point play with 3:25 to go and never looking back. New Haven cut the Saint Anselm advantage to two points on four occasions late in the extra stanza, but Saint Anselm held on for the victory with two missed shots by New Haven in the game's final seven seconds.
Saint Anselm was down by only an 18-16 margin with 9:17 to go in the first half, but New Haven forged ahead with a 13-2 scoring run to eventually own a 33-25 lead at halftime.
Through the first 20 minutes of action, the Hawks shot just 33.3% from the floor and were outrebounded, 21-15. Arbuckle and Paul each reached double-digit point scoring totals, but New Haven put home eight second-chance points to account for the difference.
New Haven shot just 25% in the second half as the Hawks produced six New Haven turnovers. Saint Anselm came out of the break on fire, scoring 15 of the first 20 points to take a brief two-point lead thanks to a two-pointer from Arbuckle with 14:24 left in regulation time.
The Chargers found their groove over the game's next five-plus minutes, using a 12-0 scoring run to recreate a double-digit lead, 50-40, with just under nine minutes left in regulation time.
New Haven was led by All-Tournament teamers Derrick Rowland and Quashawn Lane. Rowland notched 25 points and Lane produced 14 points while tying for the team lead with eight rebounds.
A complete list of the All-Tournament team selections reads as follows.
Isaiah Moore – Franklin Pierce
Derrick Rowland – New Haven
Quashawn Lane – New Haven
Tyler Arbuckle – Saint Anselm
Chris Paul – Saint Anselm (MOP)
