Moore's 18 points help
Hawks withstand Ravens upset bid
MANCHESTER, N.H. (January
27, 2005) - Saint Anselm College survived a gallant upset
bid from Franklin Pierce and collected a 76-68 victory in
Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball action at Stoutenburgh
Gymnasium tonight.
Junior Jim Moore
(Worcester, Mass.) led five Saint Anselm players in
double-figures with 18 points (12 second-half) to go with eight
rebounds. Senior Chris Conroy (Kingston, Mass./Silver
Lake Regional) added 15 points (12 first half) as he
hit five-of-nine from the field, including 4-7 from three-point
range, to go with three rebounds and three assists. Junior
Jim Holsworth (Bogota, N.J./Bogota)
registered 12 points, five assists and three steals. Juniors
Darlington Okerulu (Jersey City, N.J./Hudson
Catholic) and Matt Cahill (Bridgewater,
Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) each netted 11 points,
with Okerulu also posting seven boards.
Freshman Mitchell
Johnson (Nassau, Bahamas/Cushing Academy) led
Franklin Pierce with a season-best 27 points (18 first half) as he
hit 8-of17 from the field and converted all six free-throw
attempts. Junior Justin Powell (Brookline,
Mass./Brookline) totaled 16 points (14 second-half),
while classmate Pierre Sully (Jamaica Plain,
Mass./North Cambridge Catholic) added ten points.
Sophomore Darryl
Minnifield (Boston, Mass./Brookline) grabbed a
season-high 11 rebounds for the Ravens, but no other teammate had
more than three boards on the night as Franklin Pierce was
out-rebounded 37-25 for the night, resulting in an 11-5 Hawks
advantage in second-chance points.
After Conroy opened the second half
with a three-pointer to put Saint Anselm up seven (45-38), the
Ravens responded with an 11-2 run to take a one-point lead (49-48)
after a Powell turnaround with 14:59 to play.
Cahill drained two three's to put
the Hawks up by three (54-51) at the 12:37-mark. Saint Anselm's
lead was six (66-60) after an Okerulu jumper with 6:04 to play, but
the Ravens got back-to-back three's from Powell (first of his
career) and sophomore Sean Mayo (Saco, Maine/Thornton
Academy) to knot the score at 66-66 with 3:25 left.
Saint Anselm answered with a Moore
three with 3:00 left and he added a driving lay-up to put the Hawks
up five (71-66) with 2:06 to play. Franklin Pierce failed to hit a
field goal over the final 3:25 to end its hopes of the
upset.
Both teams were nearly lights-out
from three-point range in the first half as Franklin Pierce
connected on 58.3-percent (7-12) of its attempts from
long-distance, while Saint Anselm canned 6-of-13 (46.2%) from
beyond the arc in the stanza.
The Ravens led by five points
(17-12) after a Johnson three seven-minutes into the opening
20-minutes. Freshman Junior Mitchell (Brooklyn,
N.Y./Xavarian) canned a three at the 8:32-mark to
knot the score at 22-22 and the Hawks took their first lead (29-28)
on an Okerulu free throw with 5:38 left in the stanza.
Holsworth hit two from the stripe
to put the Hawks up four (39-35) with 1:57 left. After Johnson
canned his fourth three of the stanza with 49-seconds left,
Holsworth regained the Hawks four-point bulge heading into the
locker room with a straightaway three at the buzzer.
Franklin Pierce (6-13, 4-10 NE-10)
is back in action on Saturday when it visits Bryant University at
3:30 p.m. Saint Anselm (16-4, 11-4 NE-10) hosts Saint Michael's
College on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
BOX
SCORE
