Franklin Pierce Nips Saint Anselm, 62-61
Minnifield's fourth gamewinning basket with 1.6-seconds left lifts Ravens
RINDGE, N.H. (February 10, 2007) - Senior Darryl Minnifield's (Boston, Mass./Brookline) fourth game-winning basket of the season with 1.6-seconds to play lifted Franklin Pierce to a 62-61 victory over Saint Anselm College in Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball action at the Fieldhouse this afternoon.
Minnifield's winning hoop gave him 13 points to go with seven rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal. Sophomore Rimas Varanauskas (Kaunas, Lithuania) added a career-best 13 points, hitting all five shots from the field and all three free-throw attempts, to go with a career-high matching nine rebounds (five offensive) and three blocks. Senior Nazim Senaldi (Istanbul, Turkey) contributed nine points, eight boards and a career-best five steals, while sophomore Craig Shepherd (Grantham, N.H./Trinity) chipped in eight points, a career-high eight rebounds and four assists.
Junior Mitchell (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) led four Saint Anselm players in double-figures with a game-high 18 points (ten second half), hitting 6-of-11 shots from the field, including 4-9 from three-point range. Junior Chris Vetrano (Andover, Mass./Andover) collected 16 points (11 first half) and six assists, while freshman Giovanni Carenza (East Hanover, N.J./St. Anthony's) notched a double-double with 11 points, ten rebounds and two blocked shots. Sophomore Kyle Powers (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee) chipped in ten points and six boards (four offensive) off the bench.
Neither team shot particularly well, with Franklin Pierce hitting 38.2-percent (21-of-55) of its shots, including 40.7% (11-27) in the second half. Saint Anselm shot 36.8% (21-57) overall, including 32.1% (9-28) over the final 20 minutes. The Hawks also hit just 3-11 (27.3%) three-pointers in the second half after connecting on 6-15 (40%) in the opening half - including their first four attempts of the afternoon.
Franklin Pierce stuck in the game in the first half by turning a 25-15 rebounding advantage (including 10-11 on its own half of the court) into a 12-4 edge on second chance points.
Saint Anselm came out firing in the first half, jumping out to leads of 11-2 and 18-8 over the opening six minutes. Franklin Pierce chipped away and forced the game's first tie (25-25) on a technical foul free-throw with 4:55 left in the opening half. The Ravens used a 14-4 run overall to take a five-point lead of their own (30-25) after a Senaldi layup with 3:28 left.
Franklin Pierce settled for a one-point edge at the break (33-32), but Saint Anselm posted a 10-1 run to regain a nine-point advantage (52-43) after a pair of Carenza free-throws with 10:07 to play. The Ravens were held without a field goal for a seven-minute stretch to help fuel the Hawks run before Varanauskas scored a layup and completed a conventional three-point play with 8:33 to go.
Saint Anselm still led by nine (59-50) with 5:04 to go when Franklin Pierce scored nine-straight to force the game's fourth tie (59-59) with 2:02 left. Minnifield scored five points and dished an assist during the spurt.
Powers put the Hawks back in front (61-59) with 44-seconds left with a jumper. Sophomore Jack Barrett (Reading, Mass./Andover) hit one of two at the line with 32-seconds left to pull the Ravens within a point (61-60), and then Minnifield stripped Mitchell of the ball with 25-seconds left and after a timeout hit his game-winning 12-footer from the left side with 1.6-seconds showing on the clock. Shepherd stole the Saint Anselm inbounds pass at midcourt to seal the victory.
Franklin Pierce (12-12, 10-10 NE-10) is off until next Saturday when it visits Merrimack College at 3 p.m. The Ravens return home on Tuesday, February 20, to host Saint Michael's College at 7:30 p.m. Saint Anselm (13-11, 9-10 NE-10) visits the College of Saint Rose on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.