McNeill lay-in at the buzzer holds off late Raven rally

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (January 5, 2008) – Southern Connecticut State University picked up its first Conference victory of the season with a 72-70 decision over Franklin Pierce University in Northeast-10 men’s basketball action at Moore Fieldhouse this afternoon.

Senior forward Ktrice McNeill (Bronx, N.Y.) converted a third-chance opportunity with 1.2-seconds to play to lift Southern Connecticut to the win. The winning basket ended a 7-2 Franklin Pierce run that brought the Ravens back from five points down with two-minutes to play. The win snapped a string of five-straight Raven wins over the Owls dating back to the 2003-04 season.

McNeill finished with 12 points off the bench for Southern, hitting 6-of-9 shots from the field to go with four rebounds (three offensive). Junior Derrick Corbett (New Haven, Conn.) led the Owls with 15 points, hitting 4-of-6 three-pointers, and four rebounds. Classmate Preston Bell (Brooklyn, N.Y.) totaled 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting (3-4 three’s), while sophomore John Mazzarella (Wallingford, Conn.) notched a double-double with 11 points and ten rebounds (five offensive) to go with four blocked shots and three assists.

Junior Timothy Munch (Blauvelt, N.Y./Storm King Prep) led Franklin Pierce with 18 points and six rebounds. Classmate Rimas Varanauskas (Kaunas, Lithuania/The Winchendon School) posted his first double-double of the season with season-best totals of 13 points and 11 rebounds (seven offensive) to go with two blocked shots. Freshman Kinard Dozier (Dedham, Mass./The Winchendon School) chipped in 15 points off the bench, aided by 8-of-10 shooting at the free-throw line, adding three steals.

Southern Connecticut State shot 45-percent (27-for-60) in the contest, including 51.5% (17-33) in the first half, and drained 8-of-20 (40%) three-pointers. Franklin Pierce shot 37.3-percent (22-59), including 5-19 (26.3%) from three-point range, from the field on the afternoon. The Ravens out-scored the Owls 21-10 at the free-throw line, converting 80.8% (21-26) of their attempts.

Southern led by as much as 11 points (30-19) in the first half, but Franklin Pierce closed within three at the break (44-41) – aided by a 14-4 run that knotted the score at 37-37 with 1:54 to play in the stanza after a Munch lay-up.

SCSU led by nine (56-47) after a McNeill lay-up with 12:42 to play and were still up eight (66-58) after a three-pointer from freshman Andrew Zito (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) with 5:06 left.

Dozier scored Franklin Pierce’s final seven points, including two free throws with 18-seconds left that knotted the score at 70-70. The Owls gathered two offensive rebounds on their last possession with McNeill converting on the last one to decide the contest.

Franklin Pierce (5-8, 1-7 NE-10) returns home for the first time in a month when it hosts No. 1-ranked Bentley College on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Southern Connecticut State (4-7, 1-6 NE-10) visits Pace University on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.