BOSTON, MA - Five different Emerson College (16-7, 12-4 GNAC) players reached double-digit point totals as the Lions defeated the Monks (16-7, 10-6) 73-57 on Saturday afternoon. Alberto Rue '10 (Jamaica Plain, MA) paced the Royal Blue with a game-high 19 points and Elbie Murphy '09 (Loudonville, NY) became the 10th player in program history to hit the 1,400-point plateau with 12 points in the loss. Bryan Rouse '10 (East Greenwich, RI) was perfect from the field and led the Lions with 18 points.

The loss for the Monks drops them to fourth in the conference. St. Joe's will look to rebound quickly, as the two remaining conference contests on the docket are against two of the top three teams in the GNAC, Emmanuel and Lasell. The Monks will travel to Emmanuel on Tuesday and will host Lasell in the season finale at home on Saturday at 1:00 PM.

For Emerson, the win helps solidify their second-place spot in the GNAC standings. With two conference games remaining (2/17 @ Lasell, 2/21 vs. Rivier), the Lions are right behind Lasell (12-3 GNAC) and hold a slim lead over Emmanuel (11-5 GNAC), who swamped Rivier 92-79 earlier this afternoon.

The first 6:25 of the game was tight, as neither team held more than a four-point edge. A basket from Chris Davis ‘11 (New York, NY) tied the game at 14-apiece at the 13:18 mark, but the Lions rattled off a 14-3 run in the next eight minutes to take control of the game. A layup from Jeremy Shannon ‘11 (Lowell, MA) capped the Emerson surge and provided the hosts with their first double-digit advantage, 28-17, of the game with 4:53 left in the half.

A bucket from Ray Eatmon ‘10 (Huntington, NY) two minutes later cut the Emerson lead to seven points, but the Lions outscored the Monks 7-1 in the closing minutes of the first to take a 35-22 lead into the locker room.

Murphy's jumper 3:42 into the second half gave him exactly 1,400 career points and cut the deficit to a manageable 11 points, but Nathan Firn ‘12 (Wadesboro, NC) and Tom Messinger ‘11 (Florence, MA) hit shots from three-point distance on back to back Lions' possessions to help put the game out of reach for the Monks.

Emerson led 49-32 after the pair of long balls and went on to attain their largest lead of the game, 59-36, five minutes later when Anthony Remias ‘09 (Cranberry Township, PA) made a pair of free throws. The Lions held a comfortable lead for the duration of the game and went on to clinch an important 73-56 conference win over the Monks.

In the loss, St. Joe's was outrebounded, 39-33, for just the eighth time this season and the second in the team's last 13 games. The Monks were bested by the Lions from the field (46.3% to 36.7%), beyond the arc (34.8% to 14.3%) and the charity stripe (93.8% to 52.2%) in the defeat.

For the Monks, Eatmon grabbed a game-best 11 boards, marking the 12th time this season he's reached double-digits in caroms collected, and Chris Davis chipped in with 10 points.

With 1,403 career points, Murphy currently ranks 9th on the SJC men's basketball all-time scoring list. With 12 points in today's loss, the senior passed St. Joe's Hall of Famer John Alexander ‘74, who has 1,402. Another SJC Hall member, Steve Schuler ‘94, is in 7th with 1,457 points. Through 103 games in his four seasons, he has 488 rebounds and is 12 shy of being the sixth player in team history to amass 1,400 points and 500 boards. Murphy broke the program's career steals record on December 9th against Husson and has tallied 308 career thefts.

For the Lions, Messinger made five three-pointers and netted 17 points, Shannon added 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Firn and Remias both scored 11 in the win.

Saint Joseph's will play at Emmanuel College on Tuesday, February 17th at 7:30 PM, while Emerson will play at Lasell College on Tuesday at 8:00 PM.

Newspaper Box Score
St. Joseph's (Me.) vs Emerson College
02/14/09 1:00pm at Brown-Plofker Gym, Boston, Mass.
At Brown-Plofker Gym, Boston, Mass.
EMERSON COLLEGE 73, ST. JOSEPH'S (ME.) 57
ST. JOSEPH'S (ME.) (16-7, 10-6 GNAC)
Alberto Rue 6-14 6-10 19; Elbie Murphy 5-16 2-5 12; Chris Davis 4-9 2-3 10;
Ray Eatmon 3-8 0-2 6; Mitch Ouellet 2-3 0-0 4; Alonso Davis 1-1 2-3 4;
Anthony Savino 1-3 0-0 2; Jay Tutwiler 0-1 0-0 0; T. J. Tandberg 0-3 0-0 0;
Tom Ray 0-0 0-0 0; Zach O'Brien 0-2 0-0 0; R. J. Mattison 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
22-60 12-23 57.
EMERSON COLLEGE (16-7, 12-4)
Bryan Rouse 8-8 1-1 18; Tom Messinger 5-8 2-2 17; Jeremy Shannon 5-10 2-2
12; Anthony Remias 3-8 5-5 11; Nathan Firn 3-6 4-4 11; Sam Newman-Beck 1-8
1-2 4; Chris Briody 0-0 0-0 0; Alex Dempsey 0-3 0-0 0; Eric Helfman 0-1 0-0
0; Alex Yoh 0-0 0-0 0; Dan Boylan 0-1 0-0 0; Kabir Moss 0-0 0-0 0; Zach Cole
0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-54 15-16 73.
St. Joseph's (Me.)............ 22 35 - 57
Emerson College............... 35 38 - 73
3-point goals--St. Joseph's (Me.) 1-7 (Alberto Rue 1-3; Elbie Murphy 0-2;
Chris Davis 0-1; T. J. Tandberg 0-1), Emerson College 8-23 (Tom Messinger
5-8; Bryan Rouse 1-1; Sam Newman-Beck 1-3; Nathan Firn 1-2; Alex Dempsey
0-1; Eric Helfman 0-1; Dan Boylan 0-1; Zach Cole 0-1; Anthony Remias 0-3;
Jeremy Shannon 0-2). Fouled out--St. Joseph's (Me.)-None, Emerson
College-None. Rebounds--St. Joseph's (Me.) 33 (Ray Eatmon 11), Emerson
College 39 (Jeremy Shannon 9). Assists--St. Joseph's (Me.) 11 (Elbie Murphy
3; Zach O'Brien 3), Emerson College 17 (Jeremy Shannon 5). Total fouls--St.
Joseph's (Me.) 18, Emerson College 19. Technical fouls--St. Joseph's
(Me.)-None, Emerson College-Bryan Rouse. A-201