BOX
SCORE
COLCHESTER, Vt. - Tory Stapleton (Rahway, N.J.)
totaled 19 points and seven rebounds to lead Southern New Hampshire
University to an 83-80 overtime win over Saint Michael's College in
Northeast-10 men's basketball Wednesday night at the Ross Sports
Center. The Penmen snapped a four-game slide with the win and
improved to 14-11 overall and 9-11 in the NE-10, while the Purple
Knights are now 9-15 and 5-15 in the league.
The win was career win No. 498 for
SNHU head coach Stan Spirou.
Stapleton finished 8-13 from the
floor and was one of three Penmen players in double figures.
Stephen Wood (South Jamaica Queens, N.Y.) totaled
16 points, eight rebounds on five steals while going 7-12 from the
floor, while Josh Last (Hooksett, N.H.) had a
career-best 16 points, going 5-6 from the floor. Josh
Morgan-Green (Upper Marlboro, Md.) and Corey
Boland (Union, N.J.) added eight points apiece.
Travis Warech led Saint Michael's
with 27 points, while Nate Birr added 19 points for the Purple
Knights.
Southern New Hampshire led by as
many as 14 points in the second half and held a 67-57 lead with
just under five minutes left in regulation on a Wood basket.
The Purple Knights cut the lead to four, 69-65, with 1:42 left on a
Sam Cieplicki three. After the Penmen missed two front ends
of 1-and-1's, Birr would drive to the basket and make it 69-67 with
12 seconds left.
Stapleton would be fouled and made
1-of-2 at the line to make it 70-67. Birr would come down and
knock down a three with four seconds left to tie the game, and the
Penmen would not get a shot off before the final horn.
The Penmen took control of overtime
with an 8-0 run capped by a pair of Last free throws with 44
seconds left in overtime that made it 80-73. SNHU held an
83-77 lead when Warech made a three with 14 seconds to play that
made it an 83-80 game. The guests would miss two at the line,
but a Birr look at a three with five seconds left, and Morgan-Green
corralled the rebound as time ran out.
Southern New Hampshire led 34-29 at
halftime and used an early 8-2 run to take a 42-31 lead on a
three-point play by Cory Vejraska (Alachua, Fla.)
with 16:49 to go. The Penmen took their largest lead, 49-35,
at the 13:59 mark when Vejraska made 1-of-2 at the line.
SNHU jumped out to an early 8-2
lead and led 15-9 on a Wood dunk with 11:39 to play in the first
half. Saint Michael's went on an 11-2 run to take a 20-17
lead with 9:09 left on a Tyler Schilling basket. The Penmen
scored the final five points of the first half and a Hanell
Velez (Woburn, Mass.) three 34 seconds before intermission
made it a 34-29 lead at the break.
Southern New Hampshire shot 55.9%
(33-59) from the floor for the game and outrebounded the Purple
Knights 35-34, but Saint Michael's stayed in the game by connecting
on 11 of its 26 three-point attempts (41.2%). Neither team
fared well at the free throw line, with SNHU 14 of 26 and SMC 9 of
17 at the stripe.
SNHU returns to action Saturday
when it hosts No. 22 Stonehill in a 3:30 contest.
