CHICAGO, Ill. (January 12, 2025) – Freshman Hermann Koffi (Quebec City, Quebec) scored a career-high 18 points to lead the Stonehill College men's basketball team to a road win, 68-52, at the Jones Convocation Center against Chicago State University in Northeast Conference play.

LEADERS

• Koffi's career-high 18 points came on a 7-10 shooting performance including a 4-6 day from long range, tying a career-high of four made three-pointers. Koffi also had four assists, two rebounds, and a block in 39 minutes.
• Junior Ethan Meuser (Shavertown, Pa.) scored 11 points, knocking down three three-pointers on five attempts, and corralled four rebounds.
• Sophomore Louie Semona (Cincinnati, Ohio) sunk a career-high nine free throws on 13 attempts from the line, scoring 11 points while leading the team with six rebounds.
• Junior Chas Stinson (Charlotte, N.C.) had a game-high five assists with eight points, five rebounds, and two steals in the win.
• Chicago State was led by Noble Crawford, who scored 15 points, making five of his 10 shot attempts while corralling five rebounds.

FIRST HALF

• Stonehill cashed in on its first two shot attempts of the game as Meuser drilled a corner three, followed by a Semona layup under the basket to give the Skyhawks a 5-2 lead in the opening minutes.
• Layups from Stinson and sophomore Todd Brogna (Southborough, Mass.) pushed the Skyhawks lead to seven points, 9-2, five minutes into the game.
• The next three points went to the Cougars, but a free throw from Stinson and a Koffi three-pointer pushed the Stonehill lead back to eight points, 13-5.
• Four more Skyhawk free throws and a layup from Brogna capped off a 10-0 run for Stonehill that made the score 19-5 halfway through the half.
• The Skyhawks eventually built a 20-point lead, 32-12, thanks to three consecutive three-pointers, two from Koffi and one from Meuser.
• Chicago State's offense started to find its rhythm as a pair of threes found the bottom of the basket to spark a 9-2 run, trimming the Skyhawk lead to 34-21.
• A pair of free throws from Chicago State made it a 12-point game, 35-23, but Koffi sunk a mid-range jumper on the Skyhawks' final possession to give Stonehill a 37-23 halftime lead.
• Koffi led all scorers with 11 first-half points, and the Skyhawks held Chicago State to a 33.3% (8-24) shooting percentage over the first 20 minutes of action.

SECOND HALF

• Noble Crawford made the opening basket of the second half but Meuser responded with a three-pointer on the other end as he knocked down his third of the game.
• The Skyhawks maintained their double-digit lead and pushed it back up to 18, 51-33, after Koffi cashed in on his fourth three-pointer of the game.
• Chicago State could only pull within 16 points of Stonehill for the remainder of the game, with the Skyhawks preventing any hope of a Cougar comeback with timely shots in the second half.
• Stonehill closed out the 16-point win, 68-52, winning its first-ever matchup against Chicago State as the Skyhawks improved to 2-2 in the NEC.

NOTEWORTHY

• Stonehill is now 1-0 all-time against Chicago State, as Friday's game was the first-ever matchup between the two programs.
• Stonehill is off to a 2-1 start in road conference games after having gone 0-8 on the road last season in league play.
• The Skyhawks led for the entirety of the game after going ahead 3-0 on the first offensive possession of the game.
• This was Semona's third consecutive, and after another double-digit scoring effort, Semona is averaging 15.6ppg over the last 10 games, with 10+ in nine of those contests.
• Stonehill's record when:
  • 9-1 when outrebounding its opponents.
  • 8-1 when shooting a better field goal percentage than their opponent.
  • 7-1 when recording 9+ offensive rebounds.
  • 7-2 when recording 15+ assists.
  • 5-1 on Sundays.
• Back-to-back NEC Rookie of the Week, Hermann Koffi, notched a career-high 18 points and leads all freshmen in scoring in the conference at 9.8 points per game. His 33.1 minutes per game ranks third in the NEC.

UP NEXT

• Stonehill men's basketball (10-9, 2-2 NEC) is back in action next weekend for just one Northeast Conference contest on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, traveling to Syracuse, N.Y., to take on Le Moyne (6-12, 1-2 NEC) at Ted Grant Court on Monday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m.

 
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