MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team ended Saturday's game by scoring 25 of the final 35 points, rallying to take down the University of New Haven by a 60-51 margin at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
Saint Anselm improves to 6-8 overall on the season, moving to 3-7 versus Northeast-10 Conference opponents. New Haven, who has lost four in a row to the Hawks dating back to the 2019-20 season, evens its record at 6-6, dipping to 3-5 against the league.
Saint Anselm matched a program record for free throw percentage, making all 14 of its free throws for the first time since a neutral-site tilt against Fort Hays State (Dec. 19, 2019). The perfect rate (min. 14 attempts) has only been accomplished once before, at home against Southern New Hampshire on Dec. 21, 2008.
Junior Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) scored a game-high 23 points, adding five rebounds and making all eight of her free throws. Sophomore Melanie Hoyt (Stamford, N.Y.) came through with 14 points and a team-best six rebounds and junior Alexa Quirolo (New Rochelle, N.Y.) poured home eight points, with four rebounds and two steals, off the bench.
New Haven led by as many as seven points near the midway point of the second quarter prior to Saint Anselm scoring nine-straight points to take a 25-23 advantage. A quick 8-2 run that spanned the second and third quarters pushed the Chargers back in front, 31-27.
A 6-0 Saint Anselm run was answered with an 8-0 run by the Chargers in the third, giving New Haven a 39-33 lead with 2:01 left in the stanza. With the score tied at 44 just a minute and a half into the fourth quarter, a triple by Quirolo put the Hawks ahead for good.
New Haven scored just one basket in the game's final 3:30 as the Hawks put the game away, making each of its four foul shots in that span. Turco, one of the national leaders in free throw percentage, scored nine points in the game's final 10 minutes, including two at the charity stripe.
Saint Anselm shot just 38.9% from the floor while New Haven converted at a 44.7% rate. The Hawks were also out-rebounded, 36-to-27, but the hosts scored 13 points off 16 Chargers turnovers – Saint Anselm turned the ball over just six times in the game.
The Hawks have recorded just 15 turnovers combined in the last two games, posting back-to-back single-digit turnover games for the first time since Dec. 4-Dec. 7, 2013.
Saint Anselm hits the road on Tuesday, Jan. 10, taking on Holy Family at 6 p.m. before a 1 p.m. road game on Thursday, Jan. 12 against Felician. Five of the next six games for Saint Anselm will be played away from Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
