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Freshman Patrick
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Stonehill Stifles Hawks, 65-53
Easton, Mass. - Stonehill smothered the Northeast-10's second highest scoring offense, holding them to just nine field goals and 25 points in the second half, and came away with a 65-53 victory on Thursday night in Merkert Gymnasium.
Coming into the game conference's top team, St. Anselm, had scored at least 80 points in their last three contests, while the Skyhawks hadn't allowed a team to score more than 65 points in their last five games..
Stonehill jumped out to an early 10-5 lead behind a Randall Stallworth (Toms River, N.J.) trifecta, a Colin Scanlon (Centreville, Mass.) layup and five Mike Kernan (Medford, N.J.) points.
The Hawks came back however, going on a 13-4 run themselves behind three buckets from sophomore Pat Luptowski, the last a jumper to give St. Anselm an 18-14 lead at the 9:29 mark.
That would be the largest lead of the game for the Hawks as they scored 10 points the rest of the half, while the Skyhawks scored 12 to cut the lead to 28-26 going into halftime.
Stonehill clamped down defensively in the second half, climbing back to tie the game up at 32 behind two layups by Stallworth and a Mike Kernan bucket and took the lead for good at 35-34 on Nick Smith (Colonia, N.J.) triple at the 15:26 mark.
The Skyhawks only allowed the Hawks to score 11 points over the next ten minutes as their lead grew to 56-45 on a three-pointer by Matt Hall (Springfield, Mass.) with five and a half minutes remaining.
St. Anselm scored four quick points to shave the lead to seven but three straight layups by freshman Patrick Lee (Fayetteville, N.Y.) and two Stallworth free throws in less than two minutes ended the Hawks hopes of a comeback.
Stallworth led the Skyhawks with 19 points, while Kernan and Hall joined him in double figures with 12 apiece.
Junior A.J. Rudowitz (Monroe, N.J.) scored six points and grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with four assists, two blocks and two steals.
Stonehill held St. Anselm to just 31 percent shooting in the second half as two only Hawks reached double figures. Greg Vetrano led the team with 12 points, while Branimir Zeko recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The Skyhawks improve to 6-2 in the conference (11-2 overall) and with the win move into first place in the NE-10, while St. Anselm drops to 10-2 (6-2 NE-10).
Stonehill returns to action on Saturday when they travel to Syracuse, N.Y. to face off against LeMoyne, with tip-off set for 3:00 p.m.