Sully nets career-best 18 as Ravens end seven-game Conference skid  

RINDGE, N.H. (January 15, 2005) - Franklin Pierce snapped a seven-game Conference losing streak with a 79-57 victory over Southern Connecticut State University in Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball action at the Franklin Pierce Fieldhouse this afternoon

Junior Pierre Sully (Jamaica Plain, Mass./North Cambridge Catholic) led a balanced Franklin Pierce offense with 18 points (11 first half) as he hit six-of-11 shots from the field, including 3-5 from three-point range, and grabbed a team-best six rebounds to go with four steals.

Junior Justin Powell (Brookline, Mass./Brookline) added 12 points, four boards, four assists, two blocks and two steals for the Ravens, while classmate Douaine Anderson (Wolverhampton, England) finished with a season-best matching 11 points (nine first half).            

Senior Mike McCurdy (Milford, Conn./Staples) was the lone Southern Connecticut player in double-figures with ten points. Sophomore Ernie Brown (Mt. Vernon, N.Y./Mt. Vernon) finished with nine points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, while junior Stephen Bernard (Brockton, Mass./Brockton) chipped in nine points and four boards.

Trailing by a point (11-10) midway through the first half, Franklin Pierce used a 17-4 run to open a 12-point lead (27-15) with 6:24 to play in the stanza. Powell scored back-to-back hoops to start the run, but it was a pair of conventional three-point plays by Anderson, sandwiched around a Sully three, that sparked the burst.

Junior Tom Sadler (Oxford, England/Farmington (N.H.)) canned a three-pointer to put the Ravens up 14 (35-21) with 3:32 to play in the half, and then sophomore Darryl Minnifield (Boston, Mass./Brookline) preserved that cushion with as lay-up off an SCSU turnover as the Ravens took a 41-27 lead into the lockerroom.

Southern scored the first six points of the second half to cut its deficit to eight points (41-33) 2:27 into the stanza. A lay-up from junior Mike Yacenda (Stamford, Conn./Stamford) pulled the Owls within seven (43-36) with 15:49 to play, but that was as close as they would get as Franklin Pierce scored eight straight points to open a 15-point lead (51-36), its largest of the game at that point, with 13:18 left on the clock. Minnifield sparked the stretch with a three-pointer and added a free throw as well.

Franklin Pierce would not let Southern any closer than 11 points the rest of the way and the Ravens lead ballooned to as much as 23 after a Minnifield free-throw with 4:04 to play.

Franklin Pierce (4-10, 2-7 NE-10) returns to action on Monday when it visits No. 18 College of Saint Rose at 7:30 p.m. Southern Connecticut State (3-11, 1-9 NE-10) hosts Southern New Hampshire University on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

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