Ellis Cooper goes for career-high 33 points; Eric
Jean-Guillaume chips in with 24
RINDGE, N.H. (January 3, 2012) -- The Franklin Pierce
University men's basketball team opened up its second half of the
season on Tuesday night in the same fashion as it closed out the
first half of the season -- with a win. The Ravens pulled away late
for a 90-72 win over Southern Connecticut State at The Fieldhouse
in Rindge. Franklin Pierce won its second straight to improve to
10-2 overall and 6-2 in the Northeast-10, while SCSU dipped to 6-6
and 4-4 in league play.
Sophomore forward Ellis
Cooper (Northampton, Mass.) had a memorable game as he
shot 11-of-13 from the field and pumped in a career-high 33 points,
while also pulling down five rebounds, handing out three assists,
blocking a shot and swiping a steal.
Tuesday's performance versus the
Owls was a far cry from Cooper's experience against the same
opponent in a game last season. Late in an 84-75 setback down at
Southern Connecticut last January, Cooper suffered a concussion,
which sidelined him for nearly the remainder of the season, thus
sidetracking his promising rookie campaign to that point.
Cooper worked hard during the
offseason to round his game into form and it has paid off, and is a
big reason why the Ravens are in second place in the NE-10
standings -- just one game out of first.
Cooper wasn't the only Raven to
have a strong night as junior guard Eric Jean-Guillaume
(Stamford, Conn.) netted 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting
(2-of-3 from three-point range), ripped down seven boards, dished
out five assists, blocked a shot and collected a
steal. Freshman forward Ryen Vilmont (Philadelphia,
Pa.) added 12 points with six rebounds and senior guard
Nigel Van Oostrum (Sheffield, England) handed out
a game-high seven assists.
Dominique Langston paced SCSU with 23 points, while Greg Langston
chipped in 19. Tylon Smith came off the bench for 12 points for the
Owls.
Franklin Pierce opened the game
with five-straight points on a three from Vilmont and a layup from
Cooper. However, Southern Connecticut rallied with back-to-back
triples from Dominique and Greg Langston to take a one-point lead.
The next several minutes would settle into a back-and-forth affair
with neither side creating too much distance from the other.
Jean-Guillaume put in a basket to
knot the score at 31-all with 6:42 left in the half, but the Owls
got five-consecutive points from Greg Langston to open up a 36-31
advantage.
It was Franklin Pierce's turn to go
on a rally and the Ravens did just that by closing out the half on
a 17-1 run to take a 48-37 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Jean-Guillaume, along with sophomore center Adrianos
Vourliotakis Perdikaris (Cholargos, Athens) netted five
points during the late run, while Cooper and classmate
Andre Blackwood (Paterson, N.J.) each rained in a
triple to add to it. Cooper's three came just a moment before the
first half buzzer rang throughout the gym.
Franklin Pierce tried to pull away
in the opening stages of the second half and did go up by 15 at
57-42 with 16:38 remaining on a jumper by Jean-Guillaume. But SCSU
responded with strong offensive play over the next seven minutes
and eventually cut the deficit to four at 65-61 following a layup
from Smith. Greg Langston aided the run with a pair of treys from
beyond the arc.
The Ravens, though, weren't going
to be denied on this night and went to work on the offensive end
scoring nine of the game's next 12 points to open up a 74-64 lead
with 5:45 left. Cooper began the surge with a three and senior
forward Adedamola Abu (Mattapan, Mass.) capped it
with three-point play off a putback and foul shot.
That run was the difference in the
game as SCSU had no response. The Ravens pushed their out to 17
points minutes later at 83-66 following a steal from Van Oostrum
who fed an alley-oop pass to Cooper, who threw down a two-handed
monster dunk. The Ravens led by as many as 19 late in going on to
seal the win.
Franklin Pierce returns to action
on Saturday when the Ravens travel to Syracuse, N.Y. to face Le
Moyne at 3 p.m.
For more information on Franklin
Pierce men's basketball, please visit the team's page at
athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further,
please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube
(www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter
(www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook
(www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics).
