MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team, receiving votes in the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II poll, stumbled to a 71-62 defeat at Southern New Hampshire University on Tuesday.
Saint Anselm loses for just the second time in the calendar year of 2022, dropping to 13-6 overall and to 9-5 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents. Southern New Hampshire, who entered play having lost six in a row to the Hawks, moves to 12-7 overall and to 8-6 in the NE10.
Senior Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) scored 15 points and reeled in five rebounds while senior Gustav Suhr-Jessen (Virum, Denmark) picked up his third consecutive double-double, scoring 11 points while hauling in 10 rebounds.
Senior Chris Paul (Highland Mills, N.Y.) finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. With 1,763 career points, Paul passes both Mike McCahey '16 (1,754) and Darren Clough '96 (1,760) to capture eighth place in team history for career points.
Both teams shot under 38% from the floor in the game as the teams were evenly matched nearly throughout. It was the Hawks, however, that made only seven of their 17 free throws and whose bench was outscored by the Penmen, 33-to-11, in defeat.
Neither team led by as many as six points in the first half as the Hawks built that game-high advantage just minutes into the game, ahead by a 10-4 score. The Penmen responded by taking a 24-19 lead with 5:39 to go in the opener, but it was a close contest at the break with the hosts leading by a 30-27 margin.
SNHU hit back-to-back three's to begin the second half and never looked back, despite Saint Anselm briefly trimming the Penmen lead to three points with 14:55 to go. Southern New Hampshire continued to control the game from there on out as the Hawks were unable to consistently produce points in their trips up the floor.
An Arbuckle layup shrank the Southern New Hampshire lead to five points with 10:33 remaining, but the Hawks only made eight shots from that point on. The Penmen maintained the lead with a 10-for-10 performance from the free throw line down the stretch, generating just enough offense to hold on.
Southern New Hampshire, led by Matt Becht's 19 points, defeated the Hawks for just the first time on its home court since Nov. 16, 2016.
Saint Anselm heads to Assumption on Thursday, Feb. 10 for a 7:30 p.m. contest in NE10 play.
