WORCESTER, Mass. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team battled back from down 13 in the second half, ultimately falling to Assumption University by an 81-78 score on Thursday.

The Hawks fall to 13-7 on the season with a 9-6 mark in Northeast-10 Conference play while the Greyhounds improve to 10-10 overall and 6-10 against the league. The Hawks are back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 16 when Franklin Pierce University comes to the Hilltop for a 7:30 p.m. opening tip.

Senior Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) netted a game-high 27 points on 9-15 shooting, including 7-12 from beyond the arc. Senior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) added 18 points and eight rebounds. Junior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) chipped in 15 points for the Hawks offense.

Saint Anselm battled throughout the second half as a layup by Arbuckle tied the score at 54 with 9:24 left to play.  Matthew Kelly would can two threes for Assumption within one minute of the Hawks tying the score.
Assumption continued to use its momentum and eventually open up a 13-point advantage with 3:58 remaining in the second half.

The Hawks mounted a strong offensive attack as Tention and Paul combined for 10 points in just over one minute, pushing the score to 75-70 with 2:28 to play.

With 35 seconds left to play, Paul sunk a pair of free throws pushing the contest to a one score game at 78-75. Saint Anselm forced an Assumption timeout and managed to force a turnover on the ensuing inbound, leading to a layup by Arbuckle cutting the Assumption lead to one with 24 seconds to play.

The Greyhounds would cash a layup before Arbuckle drew a foul while driving to the basket in the final 10 seconds. He would make one of his two free throw attempts which made the score 80-78 with seconds on the clock.

Nijavan Stewart would make one of two free throws in the final seconds which extended the lead to three. The Hawks would inbound to Tention who held for the last shot but his three-point attempt came up just short, giving the Greyhounds a 81-78 victory.

Earlier in the contest, the teams traded scores throughout the first half as the Hawks took a three-point lead at 17-14 on a trey by Tention with 11:46 remaining in the first half.

An 8-0 run by the Greyhounds, powered by a layup from Jordan White and a pair of three by Cooper Creek, gave the hosts a 27-19 lead with 7:14 remaining until the break. The run stretched just over two minutes.

Saint Anselm would battle back and cut the lead to as little as four on a triple with just under three minutes to play by junior Matt Relihan (Lynnfield, Mass.) but that was quickly answered on three of his own by Kelly.

Omar El Sheikh gave Assumption its largest lead of the first half with a dunk and 1:11 left on the clock but Paul and Tention would combine to get the Hawks to within six heading to the break. Assumption held a 40-34 lead through the opening 20 minutes.

Coming out of halftime, Tention drained a three to get the Hawks deficit to three but a 10-2 stretch for Assumption gave them an 11-point edge with 13:29 to play.