SPARKILL, N.Y. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team picked up a huge 81-74 victory over nationally-ranked Saint Thomas Aquinas College on Saturday in non-conference action.
Saint Anselm improves to 12-4 on the season after taking down the No. 18-ranked Spartans, who earned their national ranking from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Saint Thomas Aquinas drops to 15-3 on the year.
Saturday's result was the first defeat of six or more points that the Spartans have taken all year. Saint Thomas Aquinas fell to Bentley in last season's East Region Championship – the Hawks enjoy a dominant 8-1 record against several successful Spartans teams in the all-time series.
Senior
Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) scored 23 points for the Hawks while junior
Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.) added 15 points and eight rebounds in the win. Junior
Jadon Archer (Enfield, Conn.) produced a well-rounded stat line with 11 points, four rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
Saint Anselm was down by a 16-4 margin in the game's first six minutes, shooting just 2-for-12 from the floor while the hosts made seven of their first 12 shot attempts. Eight consecutive points by the Hawks did nothing to stop the momentum as Saint Thomas Aquinas built a game-high 27-12 lead with 8:43 to go in the opener.
The Hawks completely overwhelmed the Spartans in the game's ensuing five minutes, using a 19-2 scoring run to capture a 31-29 lead with 3:46 to go in the first half. Becker and senior
Matt Relihan (Lynnfield, Mass.) each scored five points as the team made eight of its 10 shots in that dominant span.
Saint Thomas Aquinas enjoyed a narrow 38-36 lead at the break, finishing the opening half with nine of the final 14 points in their favor.
The Hawks came out of the locker room on fire, scoring 16 of the first 19 points of the second half to create a 52-41 bulge off six-of-seven shooting. Leading by as much as 11 points with 14:25 to go, the Spartans trimmed the Hawks lead to just one point with 1:32 to go in regulation time.
With the ball back with 90 seconds to go, Arbuckle knocked down the first of two big triples for Saint Anselm with 1:12 left. After the Spartans answered with a jumper, Tention let loose another big three with 27 ticks left on the scoreboard.
STAC was then forced to foul, sending the Hawks to the line to make all four of its free throw attempts in the game's final 20 seconds.
Saint Anselm led the way by shooting 48.1% in the game while Saint Thomas Aquinas held the edge in rebounding, 42-to-34. The Hawks handed out 15 of the game's 19 total assists and threw up seven shot rejections in the game.
The Hawks will make a quick cross-town trip on Wednesday, Jan. 18, taking on Southern New Hampshire University at 7:30 p.m. in the Spirou Field House.
