MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's basketball team secured a 78-70 victory over visiting Pace University on Sunday in the Northeast-10 Conference Quarterfinals.
Saint Anselm, the No. 2 seed, improves to 20-7 overall on the year, winning as many games for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign. Entering the day with a four-game win streak, the seventh-seeded Setters drop to 20-10 overall and will look to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA postseason.
The Hawks will take on No. 3-seeded Bentley in the NE10 Semifinals to be played on Wednesday, Mar. 1 at 7 p.m. in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium. The winner of Wednesday's showdown will face either No. 1 Southern New Hampshire or No. 4 New Haven in the NE10 Championship on Saturday, Mar. 4.
Pace entered the game with back-to-back victories over Saint Anselm during the regular season, but could not complete the three-peat. The Setters led by three with 3:45 left in regulation time, but the Hawks closed the game on a dominant 11-0 run to lock down the victory.
The five Hawks starters each scored at least 11 points in the victory, led by senior Tyler Arbuckle (Bristol, Conn.) and his 23 points and four assists. Sophomore Zac Taylor (Victoria, Australia) racked up 14 points and senior Miles Tention (Palo, Alto, Calif.) had 12 points and three rebounds.
Senior Owen McGlashan (Marlton, N.J.) had 11 points with eight helpers and junior Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.) produced 11 points and five rebounds. As a team, Saint Anselm shot 51.0% from the floor (25-for-49) but lost the rebounding battle, 35-to-25.
Tention now finds himself in a tie for 21st place all-time in team history with 1,343 career points, equaling the output of Saint Anselm Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Darlington Okerulu '06, doing so in six fewer games.
Saint Anselm built up a 23-12 lead near the midway point of the first half, finding the bottom of the net on 10 of the team's first 17 shots. Arbuckle scored 15 points in a row for the Hawks in a six-and-a-half minute span, helping stake the Hawks to an early advantage.
The Setters played well in the final few minutes of the first half, cutting their halftime deficit to just six. Down 42-36, the Hawks were able to maintain their lead by shooting 57.7% from the field while the Setters gave up 18 points off their first-half turnovers.
Pace trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half, but unleashed a 24-9 scoring run over a nearly eight-minute span to capture a 70-67 lead with 3:45 to go. The Setters missed just three of their 11 shots from the floor while the Hawks committed two turnovers and missed five free throws.
Saint Anselm was just 19-for-33 (57.6%) from the charity stripe in the game, but held on for the victory at home. The Hawks have now won each of their last five NE10 postseason games played in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium, including the 2020 conference championship over New Haven.
