NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team picked up a 74-60 victory at Southern Connecticut State University in what was a rare Monday afternoon contest.

Saint Anselm has won two games in a row, improving to 15-8 overall on the year and to 11-7 against the Northeast-10 Conference. Southern Connecticut State drops to 7-17 overall and to 4-14 versus the league.

With one game to go in the regular season, the Hawks have locked up the No. 3 seed in the Northeast Division and will host a First Round playoff game on Friday, Feb. 25 in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium. The Hawks will take on the eventual No. 6 seed in the Southwest Division, either Southern Connecticut State or American International.

Seniors Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) and Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) each scored 28 points for the Hawks, who shot over 55% in the second half on the way to the victory. Suhr-Jessen reached career-high marks in points scored (28) and field goals made (11).

Senior Alonzo Jackson (Medford, Mass.) threw up three blocks, becoming only the third student-athlete in team history (Matt Cahill '06, Kevin Sheehy '01) to post 80 or more rejections in a career on the Hilltop. Jackson exited play with exactly 80 blocks in his career.

Saint Anselm won the rebounding battle, 45-to-28, and scored 17 of the game's 22 second-chance points. Junior Owen McGlashan (Marlton, N.J.) hauled in a team-leading 10 rebounds for the Hawks.

The Hawks trailed by a 14-6 margin near the midpoint of the first half, but turned on the offense in the game's next minute-plus, scoring seven quick points to cut the deficit to one, 14-13. Back-and-forth play down the stretch preceded a 9-3 scoring spurt for Saint Anselm leading up to halftime, pushing the Hawks ahead by a 31-26 score at the break.

Southern Connecticut State trimmed the Saint Anselm lead to 33-31 with 1:38 expired in the second half, but the Hawks put the game away by scoring 14 of the game's next 18 points. Paul poured home eight points in that span as Saint Anselm was five-for-nine from the floor.

Ahead by 11 points at one point in the second half, the Hawks did not let up, firing off 10 of the game's next 14 points to build a game-high lead of 17 points with 2:27 left in regulation time. Suhr-Jessen had eight of his team's 10 points with Paul chipping in the other two to create the game-high lead.

More information about Friday's postseason game will be announced in the coming days.