BOX SCORE
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Troy
Bowen (Nashua, NH) scored a season-high 22 points and
hit a pair of late free throws to seal the win as Southern New
Hampshire University withstood a late Franklin Pierce University
rally to post a 77-74 Northeast-10 men's basketball victory at the
SNHU Fieldhouse Thursday night. The Penmen won their second
in a row to improve to 10-9 overall and 6-8 in the NE-10, while the
Ravens are now 9-10 and 6-8 in the league.
Bowen totaled 14 of his points in
the second half and was 8-14 from the floor. Cory Vejraska
(Alachua, FL) scored a season-high 16 points, going 5-5 from the
floor and connecting on all four of his three-point attempts.
He also grabbed six rebounds. Tory Stapleton
(Rahway, NJ) also scored 16 points in 19 minutes of action on 7-11
shooting. Josh Morgan-Green
(Upper Marlboro, MD) and Stephen Wood (South
Jamaica Queens, NY) each had eight points, with Wood also recording
nine rebounds and five assists.
Rimas Varanauskas led five Franklin
Pierce players in double figures with 15 points. Jeff
Manchester drained three three-pointers and totaled 14 points,
while Kinard Dozier finished with 12 points and eight
rebounds. Marcus Wellman registered a trio of threes and
scored 10 points while Terrell Ray had 10 points off the bench on
4-5 shooting.
Southern New Hampshire led by as
many as 11 points in the second half and led 66-56 with just over
eight minutes to play on a basket by Stapleton. Franklin
Pierce would go on a 12-4 run and a Wellman free throw with 2:30 to
play pulled the Ravens within two, 70-68. The Ravens would
take their first lead since the 16:52 mark with 1:23 to play on a
pair of Varanauskas free throws that made it 74-73.
The two teams would trade turnovers
on their next trips, and SNHU got the ball back with 36 seconds to
play. Morgan-Green would be fouled going to the basket with
28.3 seconds left and made both free throws to give SNHU a 75-74
lead. After the Ravens called timeout, a floater by Dozier
would fall short and Bowen corralled the rebound with 4.7 seconds
left. He would be fouled and make a pair at the line, and a
final desperation heave by the Ravens was off the mark.
SNHU held a 41-36 lead at halftime,
but Jack Barrett and Dozier hit back-to-back threes to start the
second half to give FPU a 42-41 lead. The Penmen trailed
49-47 with just under 14 minutes to play when they went on a 15-2
run, and a layup by Stapleton with 10:09 remaining gave SNHU a
62-51 lead.
The two teams traded the lead seven
times in the first half, but the Penmen would take the lead for
good when Vejraska hit back-to-back threes, the second coming with
5:28 left to give SNHU a 27-22 lead. The Ravens would cut the
lead to one with 2:17 left on a Wellman three that made it 33-32,
but SNHU would outscore its guests 8-4 the rest of the way and a
Morgan-Green basket seven seconds before intermission made it 41-36
at the break.
The Penmen shot 53.6% in the first
half and 50% for the game (27-54) while connecting on seven of
their 15 three-point attempts. Southern New Hampshire matched
a season low with 11 turnovers and outrebounded the Ravens 36-30.
Southern New Hampshire returns to
action Saturday when it travels to UMass Lowell, winners of 12
straight and currently holding a share of the NE-10 lead.
Game time is set for 4:00.
NOTES: Bowen
scored his 900th career point on Thursday...in four
career games against the Ravens he is averaging 18.8 ppg...the
Penmen improved to 5-0 this season when shooting at least 50% from
the field.
