PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team picked up a convincing 67-51 victory over Jefferson University on Saturday.
Winners of five of their last six games, the Hawks improve to 5-3 on the year following the non-conference game against the Rams. Saint Anselm's one loss in that stretch was to nationally-ranked Stonehill by just one point, 71-70, on Sunday, Dec. 5.
The Saint Anselm defense kept regionally-ranked Jefferson (6-3) to just one three-point make on 14 attempts, and the basket that poured in for the Rams was a well-defended desperation heave that just beat the expiring shot clock. The Hawks have not kept an opponent to one or fewer three-point baskets since Nov. 11, 2012 against Mercy (N.Y.).
Saturday's game featured two of the winningest coaches in NCAA Division II history as Jefferson, piloted by Herb Magee in his 55th year, has claimed victory in over 1,100 games during his tenure. The Hawks, guided by Keith Dickson in his 36th year, have logged 669 wins since the 1986-87 campaign.
Returning to game play for the first time in 2021-22, junior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) led the Hawks with 22 points and fell just one rebound shy of a double-double. Senior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) also narrowly missed the double-double with nine rebounds and 19 points. Senior Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) sent home 11 points for Saint Anselm.
Paul and classmate Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) reached 100 career games in a Saint Anselm uniform on Saturday. Starters since their debuts on the Hilltop during the 2017-18 season, the duo have combined to score 2,567 points in that timeframe. Only 54 student-athletes to date have played as many games in program history.
Jefferson opened the game with a 4-0 lead, but Saint Anselm quickly turned the tables with a nine-point scoring run that was fueled by four points from Paul and a key triple from Tention. With under 10 minutes left in the first half, Saint Anselm had Jefferson doubled up, 18-9, but the hosts crawled back into the game, 26-24, with 2:10 to go.
From that point forward, Saint Anselm went three-for-three from the floor to take a 33-24 lead late in the first half. Despite a late layup by Jefferson, the Hawks used a strong rebounding advantage in the opener (24-to-16) to establish a 33-26 lead at halftime.
Jefferson came no closer than three points of Saint Anselm in the second half and led by around 10 points throughout the rest of regulation. The Hawks held Jefferson to just four points in the game's final five minutes and their two baskets came with under 90 seconds left – a 9-0 scoring run down the stretch for the Hawks that saw four student-athletes find the scoresheet put the game away.
Erik Timko and Darius Kinnel each scored 10 points for Jefferson, who was out-rebounded by a 43-33 margin for the game.
Saint Anselm hosts Post this Monday, Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
