MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senior Peyton Steinman (Pittsfield, Mass.) of the Saint Anselm College women's basketball team scored a career-high 40 points, doing so in her team's 67-55 victory over Stonehill College on Sunday.
The Hawks improve to 4-4 on the year, winning the squad's first Northeast-10 Conference game of the season in three tries. Stonehill, who edged Saint Anselm in the NE10 Championship game in 2020, falls to 1-3 on the year and has lost all three of their league games to begin the campaign.
Steinman, who now ranks ninth all-time in team history with 1,354 career points, was 13-for-22 from the floor and made four treys, racking up a career-high 40 points to trail only Rachel Jackson '85 and her record 43 points against Dartmouth on Nov. 28, 1984. No other Hawks student-athletes, other than Jackson and Steinman, have broken 40 points.
At one point in the game, Steinman scored 29 points in a row for the Hawks in the third and fourth quarters. In the second half alone, Steinman finished with 31 of her team's 39 points as just two other student-athletes had field goals for Saint Anselm.
Steinman also pulled in a game-high 13 rebounds and joined junior Liv Robles (Wallingford, Conn.), who had 10 rebounds and seven points, in double-digits. Sophomore Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) scored 13 points and reeled in three caroms with two assists in the victory.
Stonehill pulled away late in the first quarter, carrying a 17-15 lead through 10 minutes. The Skyhawks scored the first bucket of the second quarter before the Hawks closed the first half on a 13-2 scoring run, thanks to five points from Steinman and four points from Robles in that stretch. Stonehill had just two points in the stanza's final eight minutes.
Ahead by a 28-21 margin heading into half time, Saint Anselm upped its lead to a game-high 10 points with 4:02 to go in the third. Stonehill's Emily Bramanti made things interesting late in the third quarter, hitting back-to-back three's to bring her team to within four points, 40-36, but Saint Anselm pulled away and led by as many as 13 late in the fourth quarter.
Saint Anselm made 20-of-23 shots from the foul line, but the stout Hawks defense allowed just three triples by Stonehill on 25 attempts – the visitors finished with a 34.8% field goal percentage on the day. The Skyhawks had the narrow edge in rebounding (39-to-38), but were whistled for 25 of the game's 40 fouls.
The Hawks host Felician this Friday, Dec. 10 in non-league action. The game will tip at 6 p.m. in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
