MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team overcame a sizeable first-half deficit on Wednesday to record a 79-67 victory over its cross-town rival, Southern New Hampshire University, at the Stan Spirou Field House.
Saint Anselm, receiving votes in the D2SIDA National Media Poll, improves to 13-4 on the year and to 9-2 versus Northeast-10 Conference opponents. Southern New Hampshire has now lost nine of the last 11 games against the Hawks, dropping to 10-7 overall and to 7-4 against conference foes.
With New Haven's one-point victory over Bentley on Wednesday, Saint Anselm is tied with both programs atop the NE10 with 9-2 league records.
Senior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) led the way for Saint Anselm with 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Classmate Owen McGlashan (Marlton, N.J.) dropped 18 for the Hawks in the winning effort while Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) cashed in with 15 points and seven assists.
Trailing for the first 30-plus minutes of the game and staring at a game-high 16-point deficit in the first half, Saint Anselm dramatically rallied to capture the lead as a three-point basket by McGlashan punctuated a 21-6 scoring run that spanned both halves.
Ahead by a 51-48 margin at that point, Saint Anselm continued to pour it on and at one point had scored 18 of the game's 22 points, forcing a timeout by the Penmen who were now down 63-55 with 8:04 left. The Hawks led by double-digits for the first time with 5:50 left, 67-57, following a jumper from junior Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.).
A brief comeback by the Penmen was stymied by a 6-0 run late in the second half by Saint Anselm – that spurt recreated a double-digit lead for the visitors with 2:17 to go as the Hawks escaped the SNHU campus with a big conference victory.
The Penmen came out of the gate with hot shooting from distance, making all seven of its shots including four from beyond the arc to construct a 18-6 advantage. The Hawks had work to do, but scored 11 of the game's next 18 points to trail by just eight with 9:34 left in the first.
SNHU poured home eight consecutive points after the under-10 media timeout, building a game-high 33-17 lead after bombing home two more triples. The Hawks later dropped eight points in just under 90 seconds, cutting the lead to 35-25 with 6:09 left in the opener after two McGlashan treys.
The Hawks would make numerous short runs near the midpoint of the first half, but the hot-shooting Penmen were hitting on 60.7% of their shots through the first 17-plus minutes of game play. In total, SNHU held a 14-point lead at the break thanks to 55.9% shooting from the floor.
Saint Anselm fired off nine consecutive points between the first and second half, forcing a Penmen timeout just 2:25 after halftime with a slim 45-41 SNHU lead. A huge triple from Tention, giving him 15 points in the game at the time, was the basket that forced the timeout.
The Hawks host Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 3:30 p.m.
