MANCHESTER, N.H. – Tory Stapleton (Rahway, N.J.) totaled 13 points as Southern New Hampshire survived a crazy finish to hold on to a 54-49 Northeast-10 men's basketball victory over Franklin Pierce University at the SNHU Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. The Penmen, who won their third in a row and fifth in seven games, improves to 10-11 overall and 6-11 in the NE-10, while the Ravens fall to 5-17 and 3-14.
Stapleton finished 6-11 from the floor and also grabbed six rebounds. Greg DeSantis (Trumbull, Conn.) knocked down three three-pointers and registered 11 points and five assists, while Cory Vejraska (Alachua, Fla.) also added 11 points.
Adrianos Vourliotakis-Perdikaris led Franklin Pierce with 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench, going 7-11 from the floor. Nigel Van Oostrum and Marr Barboza finished with eight points apiece.
SNHU held a 47-43 lead with a minute remaining when Corey Boland (Union, N.J.) increased the lead to seven with his first career three-pointer with 36 seconds to play. The Ravens would answer, with Eric Jean-Guillaume making his first basket of the game, a three, to make it 50-46 with 27 seconds to go. Following a timeout, the Ravens would come up with a steal on the inbounds, and Vourliotakis-Perdikaris would make a three with 18 seconds to play to cut the lead to one, 50-49.
Vejraska would get fouled with 12 seconds to go and made both ends of the one-and-one to put SNHU up 52-49. Jean-Guillaume's game-tying three attempt was off the mark, and Lucas Croteau (Rochester, N.H.) would sink a pair at the line. Croteau would then come up with a steal on FPU's final inbounds play to seal the win.
Southern New Hampshire led by as many as 11 in the second half, but Franklin Pierce used a 9-2 run to pull within one, 35-34, on a basket by Vourliotakis-Perdikaris with just under eight minutes remaining. The Ravens took their first lead since the game's opening moments with 4:24 left on a Van Oostrum layup. That lead was short-lived, as Stapleton tied the game by making 1-of-2 at the line with 3:58 left, and DeSantis would give the hosts the lead for good on a teardrop floater on a fast break with 3:38 left following a Stapleton steal.
The Penmen opened the second half on an 8-0 run and a layup by Boland with 16:28 to play made it 28-17. FPU used a 6-0 spurt to pull back within five, 30-25, with 13:14 to play on a pair of Kinard Dozier free throws.
Van Oostrum gave the Ravens a 3-0 lead on the first possession of the game, but the Penmen jumped out to an early 12-3 lead following Stapleton's layup with 12:10 left before halftime. The guests countered with a 9-2 run and a pair of free throws by Jean-Guillaume with 6:05 to go made it a two-point lead for SNHU, 14-12. The Penmen took a 20-17 lead into the locker room.
SNHU limited Franklin Pierce to just 28.3% shooting for the contest while it shot 44% in the second half and 37.7% for the game. The Penmen held a 40-39 rebounding advantage and went 9-13 at the free throw line while the Ravens converted eight of their nine free throw attempts.
Southern New Hampshire returns to action Tuesday night when it travels to UMass Lowell for a 7:30 contest.
