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Women's basketball team huddle

PREVIEW: Women's basketball opens NE10 postseason play versus American Int'l

2/24/2022 7:00:00 PM

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team will host the Yellow Jackets from American International College on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 1:30 p.m. to open the Northeast-10 Conference postseason.

No. 4 NE DIVISION SAINT ANSELM COLLEGE HAWKS (14-12, 10-9 NE10)
Roster | Schedule and Results | 2021-22 Statistics | News

No. 5 SW DIVISION AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE YELLOW JACKETS (10-15, 7-11 NE10)
Roster | Schedule and Results | 2021-22 Statistics | News

Saint Anselm finished with a 10-9 record in NE10 play during the regular season, capturing the No. 4 seed in the Northeast Division. The Yellow Jackets completed the regular season of play with a 7-12 mark, taking the No. 5 seed in the Southwest Division.

The winner of Saturday's First Round game heads to Le Moyne, the top seed in the Southwest, for a game in central New York on Monday, Mar. 2. The NE10 Quarterfinals were scheduled to begin Sunday, but with Friday's inclement weather, the First Round game on Friday was moved to Saturday along with the next round's slate of games.

The NE10 semifinals will begin Thursday, Mar. 3 with the league championship game to be played on Sunday, Mar. 6. Both of those rounds will be played at the site of the highest remaining seeds.

All tickets for Winter NE10 postseason events will cost $5.00. Students attending NE10 member institutions will be permitted to attend the games for free after presenting a valid identification card.

SCOUTING SAINT ANSELM

  • The Hawks are making their sixth consecutive appearance in the NE10 playoffs and will host home games in the conference postseason for the second consecutive season (2020 NE10 Quarterfinals vs. New Haven, 03/01/20).
  • Saint Anselm concluded its 2019-20 campaign as the NE10 runner-up team, falling to Stonehill in the postseason championship game. The Hawks and Skyhawks each earned an NCAA berth following the tilt, but the NCAA Championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The Hawks finished the regular season of play with a 10-9 record in the league and a 14-12 mark overall. Saint Anselm opened its season with quality victories over No. 8/20 Daemen and Roberts Wesleyan, opponents in the 2021 NCAA Division II East Region Championship game.
  • With a 2-0 record to begin the season, the Hawks lost four of their next five games before winning five-of-six in response. Saint Anselm heads into the NE10 postseason with wins in four of their last six with both losses coming to the top teams in the league, Pace (L 63-56, 02/13/22) and Bentley (L 73-62, 02/22/22).
  • Senior Peyton Steinman (Pittsfield, Mass.) leads both Saint Anselm and the NE10 in points per game (21.0), enjoying a stellar final campaign on the Hilltop. Ranked sixth in the country in points per game, Steinman's 88.6% free throw percentage is 11th in the country and second in the conference behind Franklin Pierce's Emma Carter (91.2%).
  • Shooting 43.6% on the season from the floor, Steinman is also hauling in exactly eight rebounds per game to rank in the top-10 of the NE10. She has also sent home a league-leading 58 three-point baskets and is second in the conference with 2.23 makes from distance per game. She needs just six points against American Int'l to set a career-high for single-season scoring, entering play with 545 points.
  • Steinman enters the game against American International with 1,749 career points, trailing Shannon Ryan '20 and her program-record 1,767 points scored in three seasons on the Hilltop. Ryan finished her career between Boston Col. and Saint Anselm with 1,769 points, a span of 93 games.
  • Steinman also holds the program records for free throws made (479) and free throws attempted (563). She ranks second all-time with an 85.1% free throw percentage in her career, ninth in steals (320), ninth in assists (320), 10th in rebounds (739) and 14th in steals (176). Steinman is eighth among active NCAA Division II student-athletes in career free throw percentage and is 16th across all NCAA divisions.
  • Sophomore Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) has formed a one-two punch with Steinman, ranking sixth in the NE10 in points per game (16.0) while leading all first-year student-athletes in the league. Turco's 81.2% free throw percentage trails Steinman in the NE10, ranking fourth in the conference.
  • Freshman Melanie Hoyt (Stamford, N.Y.) has averaged 1.08 shot blocks per game, ranking 10th in the NE10, and her 27 rejections is seventh outright among conference student-athletes.
  • Senior Stephanie Jankovic (Averill Park, N.Y.) is averaging 2.1 points per game, scoring a career-high 51 points across 24 appearances for Saint Anselm. Her 2.5 rebounds per tilt is a career-high figure, eclipsing the 1.2 caroms she hauled in as a freshman in 2018-19.
  • Senior Jenoyce Laniyan (Bedford, N.H.) has picked up 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 points per game off the bench across 25 games and a career-high eight starts. She has totaled 23 blocks for the Hawks since joining the team during the 2017-18 campaign.
  • Junior McKenzy Ouellette (West Newfield, Maine) is averaging 4.8 points and 2.3 rebounds for the Hawks across 24 games (20 starts).

SCOUTING AMERICAN INT'L

  • American International brings a 10-15 record into play on Saturday with a 7-11 record against NE10 opponents. Opening the year with back-to-back wins over Saint Thomas Aquinas and Mercy (N.Y.), the Yellow Jackets lost three in a row before winning three consecutive games to sport a 5-3 record.
  • Since the fast start, American International has won just five of its next 17 games and entering play against the Hawks on Saturday, has lost six of seven. At Saint Rose on Monday, the Yellow Jackets shot just 19.6% from the floor (11-for-56) but rebounded the next day against the same team, pouring home 19 field goals on 51 attempts (37.3%).
  • AIC was an NCAA Division II postseason team in 2020-21, competing while the majority of NE10 programs did not. The team rattled off a 7-1 record against Saint Thomas Aquinas, Mercyhurst, Saint Rose, and Franklin Pierce before falling to Roberts Wesleyan by a 75-61 score in a First Round game played at Daemen.
  • Destine Perry is the leading point producer for the Yellow Jackets, averaging 13.6 points per game while ranking seventh in the NE10 with a 74.0% free throw percentage. Her 54 triples is the fourth-most by an NE10 student-athlete and is averaging 36.5% shooting from beyond the arc.
  • Nora Young is averaging 9.8 points in 18 games for American International and is followed by Kyla Smith and her 8.8 points per game. Kayla Robinson and Zoe Willis are posting 7.5 and 4.8 points per game, respectively.
  • 11 student-athletes for the Yellow Jackets have started at least one game on the season with only five student-athletes racking up 13 or more appearances in the "starting five."

LAST TIME OUT vs. AMERICAN INT'L

  • Saint Anselm cruised to a 68-39 victory over the Yellow Jackets on Tuesday, Jan. 11. Turco led all players with 18 points while Steinman and sophomore Alexa Quirolo (New Rochelle, N.Y.) added 16 and 12 points each, respectively. Jankovic netted nine points and grabbed a career-high 11 boards, coming up just one point shy of a double-double.
  • With a 14-for-14 performance at the free throw line against AIC, Saint Anselm was perfect (with at least 14 made free throws) for just the third time in team history. The Hawks previously made all 14 free throw attempts against Southern New Hampshire on Dec. 21, 2008 and, most recently, versus Fort Hays State on Dec. 19, 2019.
  • Saint Anselm overwhelmed American International on the glass by a 51-to-28 margin. The Hawks also limited the Yellow Jackets to just a 22.2% mark from the floor for the game.

ALL-TIME – NE10 POSTSEASON

  • The Hawks own a 4-2 record against AIC in the all-time postseason series, having won each of the last three games.
  • Saint Anselm won its first and only NE10 tournament title in 1990-91, defeating nationally-ranked Bentley by an 81-76 margin. The Hawks have finished as the tournament's runner-up on six occasions, most recently in 2019-20.
  • The Hawks are 29-30 (.492) in the NE10 postseason all-time and, in 2019-20, won two consecutive postseason games for the first time since the 1998-99 playoffs.
  • American International owns a 27-36 (.490) record in NE10 postseason play all-time and, like the Hawks, owns one NE10 postseason title (2001-02). In that postseason run for the Yellow Jackets, Kristen (Patterson) Hutchison, the current head coach at AIC, was named the tournament Most Valuable Player.
  • Most recently, the Yellow Jackets made back-to-back appearances in the NE10 title game in 2014-15 and 2015-16, falling to Adelphi and Bentley, respectively, in each season.

ALL-TIME vs. AMERICAN INT'L

  • Saint Anselm is 37-32 against American International in the all-time series that dates back to Feb. 12, 1981.
  • The Hawks won 19 of the first 21 meetings between both programs but then lost 15 in a row to AIC from Dec. 11, 2003 through Jan. 31, 2015.
  • Saint Anselm has won each of the last seven games against the Yellow Jackets.
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