WALTHAM, Mass. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team was tripped up by nationally-ranked Bentley University on Tuesday, 69-56.
Saint Anselm drops to 15-9 overall on the year and to 11-8 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents, concluding the regular season of play as the No. 3 seed in the Northeast Division. Bentley, ranked as high as No. 13 in NCAA Division II, sweeps the season series against the Hawks and claims the Northeast Division regular-season title outright.
Locked in as the No. 3 seed in the Northeast Division, Saint Anselm will host an NE10 First Round game on Friday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium. The Hawks will face-off against Southern Connecticut State, the No. 6 seed in the Southwest Division, to open the playoffs.
Junior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) led the way with 15 points, making a team-best three triples. Senior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) scored 10 points with Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) striking for 11 points and five rebounds. Senior Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) collected 10 of his team's 37 rebounds on the evening.
Senior Alonzo Jackson (Medford, Mass.) had two blocks in just 13 minutes of game play, climbing to a share of second place on the team's all-time rejections list. Kevin Sheehy '01 posted 82 blocks from 1997 to 2001.
Saint Anselm led by a 45-40 margin with 14:31 to go in regulation time, but Bentley responded with a dominant 25-3 scoring run that stunned the Hawks. Scoring 15 consecutive points near the middle of that stretch, Bentley was 10-for-15 from the floor while Saint Anselm mustered just one three-point play for its only offense.
To begin the game, the Hawks led by as many as six points in the first half, building the game-high 20-14 advantage with 7:51 to go in the first half. The nationally-ranked Falcons responded strong down the stretch, taking a late lead before Arbuckle closed the first half with a wide-open three-point basket with 11 seconds left to tie the game at 32.
Zach Laput collected 15 points for Bentley with Jordan Mello-Klein reeling in 11 rebounds. The Falcons were 14-for-32 (45.2%) in both the first and second halves of play and won the rebounding battle, 44-to-37.
