Senaldi, Johnson lead hot-shooting Ravens to second-straight home win

RINDGE, N.H. (January 20, 2005) -Franklin Pierce shot nearly 60-percent from the field in posting an 82-65 upset of Pace University in Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball action at the Franklin Pierce Fieldhouse tonight.

Sophomore Nazim Senaldi (Istanbul, Turkey) helped lead a balanced scoring attack for the Ravens with a career-high matching 15 points (13 first-half) as he hit five-of-seven from the field, including 3-5 from three-point range. He also added four assists and three rebounds in the contest.

Freshman Mitchell Johnson (Nassau, Bahamas/Cushing Academy) also netted 15 points to go with a game-high six assists and six rebounds. Junior Justin Powell (Brookline, Mass./Brookline) added 14 points and four rebounds, while sophomore Darryl Minnifield (Boston, Mass./Brookline) finished with 11 points, a game-high nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Junior Pierre Sully (Jamaica Plain, Mass./North Cambridge Catholic) chipped in 11 points, seven boards, four assists and three steals.

Freshman Ryan Williams (Centerville, Va./Paul VI) led Pace with a game-best 17 points and added three steals. Classmates Maurice Douglas (Waldorf, Md./So. Maryland Christian) and Gibraltar White (Gautier, Miss./Gautier) came off the bench to score 12 and 11 points, respectively, while junior Chaka Lightburn (Belize City, Belize/St. John's College HS) grabbed a team-best five rebounds.

Franklin Pierce shot exactly 57.7-percent (15-26) in each half, but it was its lights out shooting plus a 24.2-percent (8-33) shooting effort by Pace in the first half that enabled the Ravens to take a 17-point (40-23) lead at the break.

Pace led by three (17-14) after Lightburn converted a conventional three-point play with 7:51 left in the opening half. Franklin Pierce then held the Setters to just one field goal with two-seconds remaining in the stanza during a 26-6 run to close out the half. The Ravens canned five three-pointers, three from Senaldi, during that stretch.

Pace scored the first eight points of the second half and cut its deficit to nine points just 1:19 in. Williams drained a three-pointer to pull the Setters within three-points (49-46) with 12:49 to play.

The Ravens regrouped and used a 14-4 run to regain a 13-point edge (65-52) with 7:29 left in regulation. Johnson sparked the burst with a pair of three-pointers. Pace would not get within 11 points the rest of the way and Franklin Pierce took a 20-point lead with just under a minute to play after a Sully lay-up. 

Franklin Pierce (5-11, 3-8 NE-10) returns to action on Saturday, when it visits Le Moyne College for a key Conference clash at 3 p.m. Pace (10-7, 7-5 NE-10) returns home on Saturday to host Assumption College at 3:30 p.m.

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