VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Southern New Hampshire University held off a rally by LIU-Post to claim a 60-57 men's basketball victory Saturday night at the SNHU Fieldhouse.  The Penmen improve to 2-0 with the win, while the Pioneers are now 0-2 on the season.

Sophomore Phillip Tripodakis (Athens, Greece) paced Southern New Hampshire with a career-best 13 points off the bench, knocking down a pair of three-pointers.  Elijah Bonsignore (Felton, Del.) tallied 11 points, while CJ Marriro (Boston, Mass.) added 10 points and four assists.  BJ Cardarelli (Manchester, Conn.) and Rodney Sanders (Linden, N.J.) recorded nine and eight points, respectively, with Cardarelli grabbing seven rebounds.

LIU-Post was led by Vaughn Allen who finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, going 11-12 at the free throw line.  Tobin Carberry was the only other Pioneer in double figures as he totaled 11 points.

The guests trailed by as many as 19 points early in the second half, but chipped away at the lead and found themselves down three, 60-57, with 1:39 left following an Emile Blackman basket.  Southern New Hampshire came up empty on its next two possessions, and LIU-Post found itself with the ball following a Sanders miss with 15 seconds remaining.

Coming out of a timeout, the Pioneers got one look at a game-tying three, with Carberry forcing up a deep off-balance attempt following a great defensive effort by Cardarelli.  Carberry's shot was short to give the Penmen the victory.

Southern New Hampshire, which never trailed, led 32-24 at halftime and opened the second half on a 14-3 run to open up a 19-point cushion, 46-27, with 16:15 left on a Bonsignore three-pointer.  LIU-Post countered with an 11-0 spurt to make it 46-38 with 13:10 to go on a Dillon Burns basket. 

The Penmen held the Pioneers without a field goal for nearly the game's first six minutes, opening up an early 10-2 lead.  LIU-Post got within three, 12-9, with 11:39 left in the opening stanza, but five straight points by Tripodakis made it 17-9 with just over nine minutes left.  A Sanders tip-in with 2:26 to go before halftime gave SNHU its largest first half lead, 33-22, and the hosts lead 32-24 at the break.

LIU-Post made 26 more trips to the free throw line, going 20-31 at the charity stripe while SNHU converted three of its five opportunities.  The Pioneers outrebounded Southern New Hampshire 43-29, but 18 turnovers turned into 18 Penmen points as the hosts committed just seven giveaways.  SNHU was 5-18 behind the arc while LIU-Post was just 1-9 from deep.

Southern New Hampshire returns to action Wednesday night when it opens Northeast-10 Conference play at Saint Michael's College in a 7:30 contest.