WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Senior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) scored a career-high 40 points on Monday, fueling an 81-79 overtime victory for the Saint Anselm College men's basketball team at the University of New Haven in the Northeast-10 Conference Quarterfinals.
Saint Anselm, the No. 3 seed in the Northeast Division, improves to 17-9 overall on the season following its first overtime game of the 2021-22 campaign. The Hawks move on to face the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Division, Bentley, on Thursday, Mar. 3 in an NE10 Semifinals game time to be determined.
New Haven, who lost to Saint Anselm in overtime in the 2020 Northeast-10 Conference title game, dips to 17-8 on the year. The Chargers will await word of a possible berth into the NCAA Division II postseason via the NCAA Division II Selection Show webcast.
Paul scored 13 consecutive points to begin the game and finished the first half of play with 24 to his credit. Sending home the game-winning basket with two seconds left in overtime, Paul finished with a career-high 40 points and added team-leading totals in rebounds (seven), assists (six), steals (four) and blocks (one).
Paul becomes the first to reach 40 points in a game for Saint Anselm since Tim Guers '19 went off for 41 against Adelphi on Jan. 6, 2018. Only 13 times in team history has a Hawks student-athlete gone off for 40 or more points. He also passes Roy Mabrey '15 to take fifth place on the all-time Saint Anselm scoring list with 1,903 career points.
Junior Owen McGlashan (Marlton, N.J.) scored 18 points, connecting on all four of his three-point baskets and all four of his free throws. Senior Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) tied Paul with seven rebounds, adding seven points, with Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) scoring eight points. Tention, Paul and junior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) did not come off the floor, playing 45 minutes each.
Saint Anselm led by a 71-69 margin with 35 seconds to go in regulation after back-to-back free throws by McGlashan found the bottom of the net. New Haven dramatically tied the game with 16 seconds left with a Quashawn Lane layup, just seconds prior to Paul's late attempt to end the game fell short of the rim.
New Haven rattled off five points to open overtime, creating a 76-71 advantage for the hosts. The Hawks responded with 10 of the game's final 13 points and a perfect three-for-three shooting performance from the floor. Additionally, Saint Anselm made all four of its free throws to allow Paul to make the game-winning layup with two seconds, driving directly to the hoop to put the Hawks on top.
With only two ticks left, Paul was able to step up and pick off the inbound pass from New Haven at midcourt to send Saint Anselm to the NE10 Semifinals for the 25th time in program history, extending the league record held by the Hawks.
Down 7-0 early, Paul hit three consecutive three-point baskets for Saint Anselm, eventually drawing the game even at nine with his third triple. Entering the game, Paul had made just two treys all season – he finished with four for Saint Anselm. After the early seven-point deficit, the Hawks concluded a 23-7 scoring run with the lead, 23-16, with 8:12 to go in the first half.
Saint Anselm held onto the lead at the half, 38-33, after narrowly escaping a fast-charging New Haven team down the stretch. The hosts trimmed the Hawks lead to just two points on several occasions, but were unable to close the gap before heading to the locker room.
New Haven mounted a comeback near the midpoint of the second half, overcoming the deficit with a 9-3 run that was capped by a Lane jumper, putting the Chargers ahead, 58-56, with 8:38 left in regulation time.
Saint Anselm did not allow New Haven to take any further lead in the second half with the help of a 7-0 run for the guests after the brief Chargers two-point lead. After that point, however, the Hawks were just two-for-six from the floor with Lane scoring nine of his team's 13 points in the final six-plus minutes of regulation time, including the game-tying layup.
The teams were even in rebounding (38-to-38), but Saint Anselm outshot New Haven, 46.2%-to-44.4%, from the floor. New Haven held the statistical edge in second-chance points (15-to-9) and saw 20 of the game's 26 bench points in its favor.
Lane's 22 points and nine rebounds led New Haven in the loss.
