MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team overcame an 18-point deficit on Friday, stunning the Golden Falcons from Felician University by a 73-63 margin in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
Down by a 29-11 margin near the midpoint of the second quarter, Saint Anselm responded in a big way, closing the game on a 62-34 scoring run to stun the Golden Falcons. The biggest comeback victory for Saint Anselm since at least the 2001-02 season, the Hawks improve to 5-4 on the year while Felician, winners of four in a row entering the game, fall to 4-5 in the young campaign.
Senior Peyton Steinman (Pittsfield, Mass.) canned a game-high 34 points for Saint Anselm, scoring at least 30 points for the second consecutive game. She becomes the first student-athlete since Candace Andrews '17 poured home at least 30 in back-to-back games on Feb. 11, 2015 and Feb. 14, 2015.
Sophomore Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) posted 19 points with eight rebounds (career-high), matching Steinman for the team lead in caroms. Junior McKenzy Ouellette (West Newfield, Maine) posted eight points and four assists (career-high) with freshman Melanie Hoyt (Stamford, N.Y.) notching seven points, five rebounds and a game-high four blocks.
Steinman now has reeled in 604 rebounds in a four-year career at Saint Anselm, becoming just the 16th student-athlete to reach that milestone. She also eclipsed 3,000 career minutes played and is on record as just the ninth student-athlete to play as many minutes.
Felician closed the first quarter by scoring 22 of the final 28 points, overpowering Saint Anselm with 9-for-14 shooting while the hosts were stymied, committing five turnovers and making only two of their nine shots in that span. The game-high lead of 18 points was created just minutes into the second as a 5-2 scoring spurt for Felician created the sizeable advantage.
From that point forward, Steinman helped the Hawks close the opening half on a 19-6 run by pouring home 10 points. She was aided by five points from Hoyt and another four from Turco. Saint Anselm took full advantage of five Felician turnovers in the final minutes of the second quarter, racking up four steals on those miscues and converting at the foul line, burying all six free throws.
Felician kept things close in the third quarter, despite Saint Anselm holding the 19-16 edge in scoring. The Hawks took their first lead since early in the game with a Turco triple with 4:59 left in the third, upping the Saint Anselm edge to 40-39. Trading leads near the midpoint of the frame, Felician recreated a four-point lead with 2:32 to go but would not make a field goal for the rest of the third period.
The fourth quarter was all Saint Anselm. Steinman had 13 of her points in the fourth as her team made seven out of their 10 field goals and buried all but one of their nine free throw attempts, closing the game with strong play. Saint Anselm created its game-high lead of 10 with under 40 seconds left in regulation time.
Saint Anselm shot nearly 50% from the floor in the contest, making north of 55% of its shots in the final three quarters alone. The Hawks also picked up the statistical edge in rebounds (35-to-32) as Felician was whistled for 23 of the game's 33 fouls.
Felician had four student-athletes reach double-digits in point scoring. Catherine Lecop had 19 points, five assists and four steals.
