WORCESTER, Mass. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team fell on the road at Assumption University by a 73-71 margin on Wednesday in Northeast-10 Conference play.
Receiving votes in the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Poll, Saint Anselm drops to 17-7 on the season and to 13-5 against NE10 opponents. Assumption has won eight of its last nine games, getting above .500 with a 13-12 overall record and a 9-9 mark versus the league.
With the score tied at 71 with 2:06 left in regulation time, Assumption scored the game's final two points on a driving layup with eight seconds left. A last-second shot attempt by the Hawks was swatted away just before the buzzer as the Hounds celebrated at mid-court.
Saint Anselm went 0-for-2 from the floor in the final two-plus minutes and turned the ball over twice in that span. Assumption was similarly stymied, missing two layups, but the hosts made their last shot of the game with just one second left on the shot clock.
Senior Owen McGlashan (Marlton, N.J.) and freshman Zac Taylor (Victoria, Australia) scored 16 points apiece with the former picking up the double-double with 10 rebounds. Senior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) had 13 points with six rebounds.
Junior Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.) had 12 points and 11 rebounds, leading the team in the latter statistic. Saint Anselm held the decisive edge in rebounding (37-to-28), including a 6-0 advantage on the offensive glass, but shot just 31.3% from the floor in the first 20 minutes.
Senior Miles Tention (Palo Alto, Calif.) also eclipsed 1,300 career points in the loss, one of just 25 student-athletes in team history to reach that milestone. He also moves to seventh place in team history with 3,558 career minutes played in a Hawks uniform.
It was a slow offensive start for both teams as neither team reached double-digit point scoring totals until the 13-minute mark. Just minutes later, Saint Anselm forged a game-high lead of four points, 17-13, with 8:13 to go as a 17-8 scoring run pushed the Hawks ahead.
It was all Assumption for the remainder of the opening half as the hosts headed into halftime on a 22-8 scoring run that gave them a double-digit advantage, 35-25. The Hounds could not be stopped offensively, making 10 of their 14 shots from the floor leading up to the horn.
The Hawks attempted several comebacks throughout the second half, but could not draw the game even until the final two-plus minutes of regulation time. Taylor hit a game-tying triple with 2:06 to go, completing a 10-4 spurt for the Hawks that tied the game at 71.
Saint Anselm hosts Saint Michael's this Saturday, Feb. 18 at 3:30 p.m. on Senior Day.
