MANCHESTER, N.H. – Mike Stys (Hooksett, N.H.) scored a career-high 20 points as Southern New Hampshire University used a hot start to down The College of Saint Rose 71-55 in Northeast-10 men's basketball Wednesday night at the SNHU Fieldhouse.  The Penmen, who have won five of six, improve to 10-4 and 6-4 in the NE-10, while the Golden Knights are now 7-7 and 4-6 in the league.

Stys connected on five of his eight three-point attempts on the evening and was 6-10 overall while also adding five assists and five rebounds.  Rodney Sanders (Linden, N.J.) tallied 11 points and six assists, while CJ Marriro (Boston, Mass.) notched 10 of his 11 points in the second half.  BJ Cardarelli (Manchester, Conn.) and Kostas Mantalvanos (Athens, Greece) finished with nine and eight points, respectively.

Dominykas Milka paced Saint Rose with 17 points on 7-14 shooting, while Dan Mundweiler was 3-6 behind the arc and finished with 11 points.

Southern New Hampshire jumped out to a 39-24 halftime lead as it connected on nine of its 18 three-point attempts in the opening period.  Saint Rose scored the game's first basket, its only lead, and the Penmen took an 18-10 lead with 8:58 to go following a Cardarelli three.  The Golden Knights scored the next five points to pull within three, but SNHU countered with an 8-0 run and a Stys three with 5:16 left made it 26-15.  A basket by Stys 1:21 before intermission gave the Penmen their largest lead of the first half, 39-22.

Saint Rose chipped away at the lead for much of the second half and pulled within 10, 58-48, with 5:34 to play on a layup by Milka.  SNHU salted the game away by outscoring the Golden Knights 10-2 over the next two and a half minutes, with a Stys trifecta at the 3:04 mark made it 68-50.

SNHU made 12 of its 28 three-point attempts for the game while Saint Rose was 5-15 behind the arc.  The Penmen took 16 more trips to the free throw line and were 15-21 at the charity stripe while the Golden Knights were 4-5.  Southern New Hampshire committed just 11 turnovers and outrebounded the guests 30-27.

Southern New Hampshire returns to action on Saturday when it travels to the University of New Haven for a 3:30 Northeast-10 contest.  The next Penmen home game is set for Saturday, January 26 when SNHU hosts Adelphi University in a 3:30 game at the SNHU Fieldhouse.

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