STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (2-3, 1-0 GNAC) shot 66.7% from the field in a 75-63 victory over Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) rival Lasell College (1-4, 0-1 GNAC) at the Harold Alfond Center on Tuesday evening. Monks senior guard Steve Simonds (Steep Falls, Maine) tallied 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds in what was the GNAC opener for both programs.
Saint Joseph's owned a 29-20 lead after shooting 59.1% (13-22) from the floor in the first half and connected on 75% (15-20) from the field in the second stanza to help hold off a pesky Lasell team. The Lasers shot just 25% (8-32), including a 1-16 effort from three-point range, in the first half but fought back into play by posting solid 40% (14-35) and 50% (7-14) efforts, from the floor and beyond the arc, respectively, in the second stanza.
The Monks appeared to have put the game to bed early, as the hosts registered a 16-2 run midway through the first half to secure a 25-7 advantage. Simonds capped the outburst with a jumper off a Jake Downing (Simsbury, Conn.) pass with 5:07 remaining in the first frame. The Lasers responded with a 13-4 run of their own, with senior guard Angel Ortiz (East Lyme, Conn.) netting nine of his game-high 32 points, to cut the Lasell deficit down to a more manageable 29-20 tally at the break.
Freshman Quinn Richardson-Newton (Saco, Maine) led all first-half scorers with 10 points while Simonds totaled seven points in the opening 20 minutes for the Monks. Ortiz paced the Lasers with nine points in the first frame and junior forward Pat Marchand (Cranston, R.I.) added six points and six boards in the opening stanza.
Lasell began the second half with an 8-2 burst, as a Richard O'Brien (Manchester, N.H.) three-pointer cut the Monks' cushion down to 31-28 with 16:55 left. Again, Saint Joseph's looked to put the game on ice, this time by way of a 24-7 stretch, which spanned nearly nine minutes. The offensive surge was closed out by a Craig Luschenat (Boston, Mass.) layup on a fast break - a play set up by a Jerome Diggs (Washington, D.C.) steal and dish - which saw St. Joe's claim a game-high 20-point (55-35) advantage with 7:03 left.
Making one last push, the Lasers doubled up the Monks, 22-11, over the following five minutes, cutting the SJC lead down to 66-57 with 2:19 on the clock. Ortiz almost singlehandedly lifted the visitors back into the conversation by scoring 16 points during the offensive burst. Saint Joseph's managed to hold off the comeback-minded Lasers as five different players combined to make nine of 10 shots from the free throw line in the closing minutes.
For Saint Joseph's, Richardson-Newton scored a career-high 16 points while shooting 6-7 from the field and 4-4 from the stripe, Downing added nine points, sophomore John Crawley (Fitchburg, Mass.) netted seven with four boards in 10 minutes off the bench, and Diggs totaled six points, seven assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals in the victory.
For Lasell, Ortiz poured in 32 points – including 23 in the second half alone - with the help of a 9-10 free-throw shooting performance, Marchand added eight points and eight rebounds, and O'Brien contributed eight points in a losing effort.
Saint Joseph's dealt 24 assists on 28 field goals and held advantages in points in the paint (30-18), fast break points (12-0), and bench points (26-7) in the triumph. Lasell scored 21 points off 21 SJC turnovers while committing just 11 turnovers in the setback.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 10-8 in the history of the series with Lasell College, a team that split a pair of contests with the Royal Blue last season. The Monks defeated the Lasers, 81-70, at home on January 23rd and suffered a regular-season ending 77-68 loss at the hands of Lasell in Newton, Mass. on February 22nd.
Both teams return to action facing conference opponents on Thursday, when Saint Joseph's plays at Emmanuel College at 7:30 PM and Lasell hosts crosstown rival Mount Ida College in a 7:00 PM tip-off.
GAME NOTES
The Monks' 66.7% shooting performance is the highest in the 12-year tenure of Head Coach Rob Sanicola '99…Saint Joseph's has shot 50% or better in 85 different games since Sanicola took the reins in 2003 and owns a 72-13 record in such contests…ironically, the last time the Monks suffered loss when shooting at least 50% from the floor came in the nine-point setback at the hands of the Lasers on February 22nd, 2014…the team record for FG% (.742) came in a win over Atlantic Union on December 2nd, 1998…10 different players scored in tonight's victory, including Davis Tucker (High Point, N.C.), who also pulled down five rebounds in just seven minutes off the bench.
#GOMONKS
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
