MANCHESTER, N.H. (February 15, 2014) – Senior
forward Ellis Cooper (Northampton, Mass.) pumped
in 20 points, but a slow start by the Franklin Pierce University
men's basketball team could not be overcome despite a furious
second-half rally in a tough 90-85 setback at Saint Anselm on
Saturday in Stoutenburgh Gym in Manchester, N.H.
Franklin Pierce dipped to 18-5
overall with the loss and 13-5 in the Northeast-10, while the Hawks
improved to 16-6 and 14-4 in the league, while also taking over
sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division with the
win.
Cooper was one of four Ravens to
log double-figures in scoring, as Ryen Vilmont
(Philadelphia, Pa.) followed with 19 points, Donte
Gittens (Hartford, Conn.) had 17, and Adrianos
Vourliotakis Perdikaris (Cholargos, Athens) added a
double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Three Saint Anselm players logged
at least 20 points, including Dino Mallios with a game-high 24. Roy
Mabrey netted 21 points, while Mike McCahey followed with 20.
Saint Anselm was on fire from
beyond the arc in the first half, connecting on 57 percent of its
attempts (8-of-14), including a 3-of-4 clip from Mallios, who had
16 points in the opening 20 minutes. His back-to-back triples near
the midway point of the first half capped a 12-0 run by the Hawks
as they opened up a 16-5 lead. Mallios' third three ball of
the half with 3:45 left pushed the lead out to 16 at 39-23.
The Ravens could not match Saint
Anselm's torrid shooting pace, and hurt their chances even
further by going just 3-of-9 from the foul line in the first half.
They finished 13-of-25 at the charity stripe for the game.
Franklin Pierce tried to hang
around in the second half and made things interesting by scoring
the first nine points to trim the deficit to 49-41.
Saint Anselm, though, settled
things down and started knocking down shots from the outside once
again to stem the tide. However, the Ravens kept coming and
eventually mounted a 12-3 run midway through the half to get to
within two at 69-67. Gittens netted five-straight points to
highlight the surge, while Cooper added four. Paul Becklens
(Boston, Mass.) hit a driving layup to cap the rally to
get the game to within one possession.
The Hawks once again stemmed the
flow by scoring eight of the next 10 points to make it 77-69, but
saw their deficit wilt away to 79-75 following a nice transition
basket from Cooper with 3:50 to go.
However, Saint Anselm would not let
its lead slip away late and hung on for the win.
Franklin Pierce returns to action
Wednesday when the Ravens travel to Easton, Mass. to take on
Stonehill at 7:30 p.m.
For more information on Franklin
Pierce men's basketball, please visit the team's page
at http://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/FranklinPierceRavens).
Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's basketball
apparel can do so on the athletic department's online store
at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)
