Ellis Cooper goes for career-high 33 points; Eric Jean-Guillaume chips in with 24

RINDGE, N.H. (January 3, 2012) -- The Franklin Pierce University men's basketball team opened up its second half of the season on Tuesday night in the same fashion as it closed out the first half of the season -- with a win. The Ravens pulled away late for a 90-72 win over Southern Connecticut State at The Fieldhouse in Rindge. Franklin Pierce won its second straight to improve to 10-2 overall and 6-2 in the Northeast-10, while SCSU dipped to 6-6 and 4-4 in league play.

Sophomore forward Ellis Cooper (Northampton, Mass.) had a memorable game as he shot 11-of-13 from the field and pumped in a career-high 33 points, while also pulling down five rebounds, handing out three assists, blocking a shot and swiping a steal.

Tuesday's performance versus the Owls was a far cry from Cooper's experience against the same opponent in a game last season. Late in an 84-75 setback down at Southern Connecticut last January, Cooper suffered a concussion, which sidelined him for nearly the remainder of the season, thus sidetracking his promising rookie campaign to that point.

Cooper worked hard during the offseason to round his game into form and it has paid off, and is a big reason why the Ravens are in second place in the NE-10 standings -- just one game out of first.

Cooper wasn't the only Raven to have a strong night as junior guard Eric Jean-Guillaume (Stamford, Conn.) netted 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting (2-of-3 from three-point range), ripped down seven boards, dished out five assists, blocked a shot and collected a steal. Freshman forward Ryen Vilmont (Philadelphia, Pa.) added 12 points with six rebounds and senior guard Nigel Van Oostrum (Sheffield, England) handed out a game-high seven assists.

Dominique Langston paced SCSU with 23 points, while Greg Langston chipped in 19. Tylon Smith came off the bench for 12 points for the Owls.

Franklin Pierce opened the game with five-straight points on a three from Vilmont and a layup from Cooper. However, Southern Connecticut rallied with back-to-back triples from Dominique and Greg Langston to take a one-point lead. The next several minutes would settle into a back-and-forth affair with neither side creating too much distance from the other.

Jean-Guillaume put in a basket to knot the score at 31-all with 6:42 left in the half, but the Owls got five-consecutive points from Greg Langston to open up a 36-31 advantage. 

It was Franklin Pierce's turn to go on a rally and the Ravens did just that by closing out the half on a 17-1 run to take a 48-37 lead into the locker room at halftime. Jean-Guillaume, along with sophomore center Adrianos Vourliotakis Perdikaris (Cholargos, Athens) netted five points during the late run, while Cooper and classmate Andre Blackwood (Paterson, N.J.) each rained in a triple to add to it. Cooper's three came just a moment before the first half buzzer rang throughout the gym.

Franklin Pierce tried to pull away in the opening stages of the second half and did go up by 15 at 57-42 with 16:38 remaining on a jumper by Jean-Guillaume. But SCSU responded with strong offensive play over the next seven minutes and eventually cut the deficit to four at 65-61 following a layup from Smith. Greg Langston aided the run with a pair of treys from beyond the arc.

The Ravens, though, weren't going to be denied on this night and went to work on the offensive end scoring nine of the game's next 12 points to open up a 74-64 lead with 5:45 left. Cooper began the surge with a three and senior forward Adedamola Abu (Mattapan, Mass.) capped it with three-point play off a putback and foul shot.

That run was the difference in the game as SCSU had no response. The Ravens pushed their out to 17 points minutes later at 83-66 following a steal from Van Oostrum who fed an alley-oop pass to Cooper, who threw down a two-handed monster dunk. The Ravens led by as many as 19 late in going on to seal the win.

Franklin Pierce returns to action on Saturday when the Ravens travel to Syracuse, N.Y. to face Le Moyne at 3 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men's basketball, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics).