Owls clip Stonehill but fall to Saint Anselm

Michael Costeines – Staff Writer –

After being defeated by the Hawks of Saint Anslem 83-80 at Moore Field House last Wednesday, the Owls men’s basketball team (11-6, 8-5 NE-10), rebounded Saturday with a road victory over Stonehill University, 77-74.

In Wednesday’s game against Saint Anselm, senior Trevon Hamlet led all Owl scorers with 21 points on 9-17 shooting, including six rebounds and five blocks. Hamlet’s five rejections now give him 48 for the season, which leads the NE-10 Conference. Junior Greg Langston and freshman Deshawn Murphy each had 15 points in the loss.

“I thought when it left my hand it had a chance to fall, but obviously that did not happen,” said Hamlet on his missed three pointer at the end of the game. “My body was not perfectly square to the basket which I think would have made my shot a bit easier and I might have had a extra second or two and I rushed it. We battled back as a team and put ourselves in a hole we didn’t climb out of.”

The Hawks took a one point lead into the half, despite only shooting about 39 percent from the field. The Hawks hit four three-pointers and amassed 12 more total shots to hold the earlier edge. Hamlet used aggressive play early on to score 13 points on nine shots, hitting an array of mid range and baseline jumpers in the first five minutes of play.

In the second half, an evenly matched contest ballooned into a double digit lead after Hawks’ Roy Mabrey, who heads the conference in scoring at 19.4 points per game, hit a three-pointer and was fouled putting the game at 61-51 with just under 11 minutes to play. Minutes later, the lead would swell to 16 at 69-53 before the Owls clawed back. Sophomore Luke Houston, who finished the game with thirteen points, hit a three-pointer from the wing to make it 76-70 with 3:43 to go in the game.

However, the Owls never managed to take the lead, as both Houston and Langston missed from the corners. The Owls fought back from as many as 16 in the second half, but a potential game tying three-point basket by Hamlet drew only glass to the right of the rim. The closest the Owls could come was a lay-up by Murphy with 36 seconds left in the game to make the score 80-78.

“I was proud of the way our guys fought back, but we didn’t execute until about seven or eight minutes left in the game”, said Head Coach Mike Donnelly. When you put yourself in a hole like we did, it’s tough to come back from that, so while I’m proud of our effort I am disappointed that we didn’t execute our game plan the way I anticipated.”

The Hawks shot 44 percent from outside while the Owls only could manage a mere 32 percent. The aforementioned Mabrey led the Hawks with 22 points, while freshman Mike McCahey scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half to provide the final margin. The duo ranks first and fourth in the league in scoring respectively.

The Owls locked up defensively late, using on ball pressure in the backcourt to stiffen the Hawk Offense. Sophomore Tylon Smith, who finished the game with 13 points and eight rebounds, created on-ball pressure on Hawks guard Dino Mallace, creating turnovers and giving the Owls extra possessions to rally the comeback.

“It was just not enough to get us this game,” said Smith. “That is what’s most disappointing for myself. They just made more plays than we did.”

In Saturday’s contest against Stonehill, the Owls led by Langston who scored 19 points, fell behind early, and trailed 45-39 going into halftime. Coming out of the half, the Owls managed to cut the Skyhawks lead to seven with four minutes remaining in regulation. From there, the Owls proceeded to go on an 11-0 run, rallying them to their eleventh victory of the season. Along with Langston, Murphy and Hamlet, both finished in double figures, scoring 34 points. combined.