MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team captured a 79-78 victory over regionally-ranked Pace University on Saturday.
The Hawks improve to 6-4 overall with a 2-3 mark in Northeast-10 Conference play. The Setters fall to 8-4 on the season and to 4-1 against conference foes – Saint Anselm has now won 13 of the last 14 games played against Pace since Jan. 12, 2010.
Senior Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) scored the game-winning three-point basket as time expired off an inbounds pass from junior Matt Relihan (Lynnfield, Mass.), flipping what was a 78-76 deficit into a one-point victory. Tention finished with 24 points, matching the scoring output of classmate Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.).
Paul, who crossed the 1,600 career point mark in the victory, added eight assists and five rebounds to his stat line. Junior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) and senior Alonzo Jackson (Medford, Mass.) both chipped in 10 points. Arbuckle added six helpers while Jackson posted two blocks. Relihan grabbed a team-high seven boards.
Tention netted the first eight points for the Hawks with two three pointers and a jump shot which gave the Hawks an 8-5 edge in the opening minutes. After a pair of free throws by Jackson with 12:27 left in the opening half, the Setters used an 8-2 run to regain the lead at 17-16. The run spread across just under four minutes.
The next seven points went the way of the Hawks, who opened a 23-17 lead with 5:58 remaining in the first half. The teams traded scores in the final minutes of the half before Pace trimmed its deficit to one on a three by Dominick Cristiano with 1:36 remaining. However, six points by Tention over the final 1:20 of the 20 minutes would give Saint Anselm a 36-29 lead at the break.
Saint Anselm's hot shooting to close the first half continued into the second as back-to-back buckets by Jackson and a three by Tention gave the squad a 10-point lead at 47-37 with 15:31 left in the half.
After Paul and Pace's Bryan Powell traded layups, the Setters would outscore the Hawks, 23-11, over the next 7:26 and eventually take the lead on a three pointer by Brandon Powell, making the score 62-60 with 7:27 left in regulation.
Arbuckle would sink a floating jumper just 37 seconds later before Paul capped off a three-point play to give the Hawks the lead once more at 65-62 with 6:19 left. The Hawks would maintain the lead and ultimately owned a six-point advantage, 72-66, with 3:35 remaining following a clutch triple by Relihan.
Pace utilized a 9-2 scoring run from there, shooting three-for-five from the floor and making each of its three free throws in that span – it was back-to-back Austin Gilbertson free throws with 52 seconds left that both tied the game and put Pace ahead, 75-74.
Tention had back-to-back makes at the free throw line, pushing Saint Anselm ahead by a 76-75 score with 44 ticks left, but a layup by Brandon Powell put the Hawks behind, 77-76, with nine seconds remaining. With just under two seconds left, Gilbertson went to the line again, making the first free throw and missing the second.
With his team trailing 78-76, senior Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) picked up the defensive rebound and called a time out. The Hawks were fortunate to get the ball across half court shortly thereafter, as the inbound fired into play caromed off a Pace student-athlete and out of bounds. Saint Anselm was then able to call yet another timeout to set up the winning play inside half court.
Bryan Powell finished with a game-high 26 points and 10 rebounds in defeat. The Setters shot north of 55% from the floor and won the rebounding battle (32-to-28), but the Hawks made 21-of-28 from the free throw line while Pace missed seven of its 21 shots at the charity stripe.
Saint Anselm is back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 11 when American International comes to the Hilltop in NE10 Conference action.
