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Freshman Patrick
Lee came off the bench to score six points and grab
three
rebounds in seven second half minutes.
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Stonehill Stifles Hawks,
65-53
Boxscore
Easton, Mass.
- Stonehill smothered the Northeast-10's second
highest scoring offense, holding them to just nine field goals and
25 points in the second half, and came away with a 65-53 victory on
Thursday night in Merkert Gymnasium.
Coming into the game conference's top team, St. Anselm, had
scored at least 80 points in their last three contests, while the
Skyhawks hadn't allowed a team to score more than 65 points in
their last five games..
Stonehill jumped out to an early 10-5 lead behind a
Randall Stallworth (Toms River, N.J.) trifecta, a
Colin Scanlon (Centreville, Mass.) layup and five
Mike Kernan (Medford, N.J.) points.
The Hawks came back however, going on a 13-4 run themselves
behind three buckets from sophomore Pat Luptowski, the last a
jumper to give St. Anselm an 18-14 lead at the 9:29 mark.
That would be the largest lead of the game for the Hawks as they
scored 10 points the rest of the half, while the Skyhawks scored 12
to cut the lead to 28-26 going into halftime.
Stonehill clamped down defensively in the second half, climbing
back to tie the game up at 32 behind two layups by Stallworth and a
Mike Kernan bucket and took the lead for good at 35-34 on
Nick Smith (Colonia, N.J.) triple at the 15:26
mark.
The Skyhawks only allowed the Hawks to score 11 points over the
next ten minutes as their lead grew to 56-45 on a three-pointer by
Matt Hall (Springfield, Mass.) with five and a
half minutes remaining.
St. Anselm scored four quick points to shave the lead to seven
but three straight layups by freshman Patrick Lee
(Fayetteville, N.Y.) and two Stallworth free throws in less than
two minutes ended the Hawks hopes of a comeback.
Stallworth led the Skyhawks with 19 points, while Kernan and
Hall joined him in double figures with 12 apiece.
Junior A.J. Rudowitz (Monroe, N.J.) scored six
points and grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with four assists, two
blocks and two steals.
Stonehill held St. Anselm to just 31 percent shooting in the
second half as two only Hawks reached double figures. Greg
Vetrano led the team with 12 points, while Branimir Zeko recorded a
double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The Skyhawks improve to 6-2 in the conference (11-2 overall) and
with the win move into first place in the NE-10, while St. Anselm
drops to 10-2 (6-2 NE-10).
Stonehill returns to action on Saturday when they travel to
Syracuse, N.Y. to face off against LeMoyne, with tip-off set for
3:00 p.m.
