Minnifield's fourth gamewinning
basket with 1.6-seconds left lifts Ravens
RINDGE, N.H. (February 10,
2007) - Senior Darryl Minnifield's (Boston,
Mass./Brookline) fourth game-winning basket of the season
with 1.6-seconds to play lifted Franklin Pierce to a 62-61 victory
over Saint Anselm College in Northeast-10 Conference men's
basketball action at the Fieldhouse this afternoon.
Minnifield's winning hoop gave him
13 points to go with seven rebounds, five assists, a block and a
steal. Sophomore Rimas Varanauskas (Kaunas,
Lithuania) added a career-best 13 points, hitting all five
shots from the field and all three free-throw attempts, to go with
a career-high matching nine rebounds (five offensive) and three
blocks. Senior Nazim Senaldi (Istanbul, Turkey)
contributed nine points, eight boards and a career-best five
steals, while sophomore Craig Shepherd (Grantham,
N.H./Trinity) chipped in eight points, a career-high eight
rebounds and four assists.
Junior Mitchell (Brooklyn,
N.Y./Xaverian) led four Saint Anselm players in
double-figures with a game-high 18 points (ten second half),
hitting 6-of-11 shots from the field, including 4-9 from
three-point range. Junior Chris Vetrano (Andover,
Mass./Andover) collected 16 points (11 first half) and six
assists, while freshman Giovanni Carenza (East Hanover,
N.J./St. Anthony's) notched a double-double with 11
points, ten rebounds and two blocked shots. Sophomore Kyle
Powers (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee) chipped in ten points
and six boards (four offensive) off the
bench.
Neither team shot particularly
well, with Franklin Pierce hitting 38.2-percent (21-of-55) of its
shots, including 40.7% (11-27) in the second half. Saint Anselm
shot 36.8% (21-57) overall, including 32.1% (9-28) over the final
20 minutes. The Hawks also hit just 3-11 (27.3%) three-pointers in
the second half after connecting on 6-15 (40%) in the opening half
- including their first four attempts of the afternoon.
Franklin Pierce stuck in the game
in the first half by turning a 25-15 rebounding advantage
(including 10-11 on its own half of the court) into a 12-4 edge on
second chance points.
Saint Anselm came out firing in the
first half, jumping out to leads of 11-2 and 18-8 over the opening
six minutes. Franklin Pierce chipped away and forced the game's
first tie (25-25) on a technical foul free-throw with 4:55 left in
the opening half. The Ravens used a 14-4 run overall to take a
five-point lead of their own (30-25) after a Senaldi layup with
3:28 left.
Franklin Pierce settled for a
one-point edge at the break (33-32), but Saint Anselm posted a 10-1
run to regain a nine-point advantage (52-43) after a pair of
Carenza free-throws with 10:07 to play. The Ravens were held
without a field goal for a seven-minute stretch to help fuel the
Hawks run before Varanauskas scored a layup and completed a
conventional three-point play with 8:33 to
go.
Saint Anselm still led by nine
(59-50) with 5:04 to go when Franklin Pierce scored nine-straight
to force the game's fourth tie (59-59) with 2:02 left. Minnifield
scored five points and dished an assist during the spurt.
Powers put the Hawks back in front
(61-59) with 44-seconds left with a jumper. Sophomore Jack
Barrett (Reading, Mass./Andover) hit one of two at the
line with 32-seconds left to pull the Ravens within a point
(61-60), and then Minnifield stripped Mitchell of the ball with
25-seconds left and after a timeout hit his game-winning 12-footer
from the left side with 1.6-seconds showing on the clock. Shepherd
stole the Saint Anselm inbounds pass at midcourt to seal the
victory.
Franklin Pierce (12-12, 10-10
NE-10) is off until next Saturday when it visits Merrimack College
at 3 p.m. The Ravens return home on Tuesday, February 20, to host
Saint Michael's College at 7:30 p.m. Saint Anselm (13-11, 9-10
NE-10) visits the College of Saint Rose on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
BOXSCORE
