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| A.J. Rudowitz had 20 points and eight rebounds in the Skyhawks 69-62 win. |
Skyhawks Prevail As McLaughlin Earns 100th Win
Albany, N.Y. - Despite some shaking foul shooting in the final minute, the Skyhawks held on to win their eighth straight contest, this one a 69-62 victory over St. Rose, to give coach Dave McLaughlin his 100th career victory at Stonehill.
McLaughlin becomes just the third Stonehill men's head coach to reach 100 wins, joining Ray Pepin (171 wins) and Tom Foliard (102 wins) as he improved his career record to 100-55.
The Skyhawks nearly led from the opening tip to the final buzzer, despite allowing a season high 44 percent shooting from the field by the Golden Knights.
The game was close throughout the first half as neither team was able to grab a lead of more than twoduring the game's first eight minutes.
However, following two Matt Hall (Springfield, Mass.) foul shots Stonehill took a 14-10 lead. Neither team would score for the next two and a half minutes until A.J. Rudowitz (Monroe Township, N.J) scored on a layin to make it 16-10 at the 9:34 mark.
The Golden Knights responded, going on an 11-4 run, highlighted by a Malcom Williams trey and jumper by Evan Lane to give St. Rose their last lead of the game at 21-20.
Stonehill shut them down for the final four minutes of the half, scoring eight straight of their own as they stretched their lead to 28-21 on the three-pointer from Hall with ten seconds remaining in the half.
In the second, the Golden Knights were never able to get closer than four and the Skyhawks built their lead to 11, 45-34, with just over 11 minutes remaining on an offensive rebound and put back by Mike Kernan (Medford, N.J.).
St. Rose and Stonehill continued to trade baskets for the next nine minutes as Hall once again extended the Skyhawk lead to 11 this time with 1:35 remaining.
The Golden Knights tried to stage a comeback as Jermaine Clark hit a layup and Randall Stallworth (Toms River, N.J.) was fouled immediately. However he missed the front end of a one and one and Clark came down and fired home a three to cut the lead to six.
From there the Skyhawks s were able to withstand two more quick buckets by Clark and one from Shea Bromirski by going 10-15 from the charity stripe in the final 1:22 including a perfect 6-6 effort from senior Nick Smith (Colonia, N.J.).
Smith was a perfect 7-7 in the contest and came off the bench to score 14 points while also grabbing six rebounds. Rudowitz had another solid performance, scoring a team high 20 points to go along with eight rebounds, two blocks and three steals.
Hall joined the other two in double figures with 17 and also had three thefts while Kernan fell just short of his fifth double-double of the season with nine points and nine boards.
Stonehill now sits at 14-2 overall and 9-2 in the Northeast-10. They look to improve on that record when they travel to take on Pace on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.