STANDISH, Maine – Senior guard Steve Simonds (Steep Falls, Maine) tallied 30 points, nine rebounds and five assists and junior guard Jake Downing (Simsbury, Conn.) scored 19 off the bench to help Saint Joseph's College (8-7, 6-3 GNAC) defeat Norwich University (6-9, 3-6 GNAC), 91-64, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball contest at the Harold Alfond Center tonight.
Saint Joseph's was alone in the lead for all but one Norwich possession late in the opening half, as the Monks utilized a 10-0 run midway through the first frame and a 60% (9-15) three-point shooting effort in the second stanza to come away with their sixth conference win of the season.
The Monks shot 54.1% (33-61) from the field and 59.3% (16-27) from beyond the arc overall and scored 19 points off 12 Norwich turnovers. Saint Joseph's also recorded 26 assists on 33 field goals and owned a 33-28 edge on the glass in what was the hosts' highest point output of the season and largest winning margin since SJC defeated Mount Ida College, 75-47, on January 15th, 2014.
Tonight's victory over Norwich also counts as the 200th career win for Head Coach Rob Sanicola '99, who is now 200-116 (.633) in the midst of his 12th year at the helm. Sanicola is the sixth head coach in Saint Joseph's College Athletics history to reach the 200-victory plateau, as he joins current baseball Head Coach Will Sanborn '86 (603 wins), current women's basketball Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83 (516), former men's basketball coach Rick Simonds (504), current softball Head Coach Jamie Smyth '92 (423) and current softball Co-Head Coach Dick Bailey (312) on the short list.
Leading 7-6 with 15 minutes left in the first half, St. Joe's rattled off the aforementioned 10-0 outburst, which began with a Simonds trifecta and came to a close with the Monks on top, 17-6, after freshman forward Christien Morneweck (Burlington, Mass.) made a layup two minutes later.
The Cadets managed to climb back into the game with the help of freshman Mike Hogervorst (Leiden, Netherlands) – a 6'11" center – and freshman guard Ryan Booth (Northfield, Vt.), as the duo combined to net 26 first-half points.
Booth drained his fourth of five first-half three pointers to knot the contest at 35 apiece with 2:33 before the break, but Downing provided a major spark, scoring eight straight points with a pair of treys and a layup in a matter of 69 seconds to put his team on top, 43-35, with 1:20 remaining in the opening period. Booth netted his fifth three with 42 seconds on the clock as the Monks carried a 43-48 lead into intermission.
In the second half, Norwich maintained a two-possession deficit until St. Joe's posted a 9-2 run, which was capped by a Jerome Diggs (Washington, D.C.) dunk that staked the hosts to a 61-48 cushion with 12:39 left. The Cadets cut the deficit down to 65-55 after junior forward Gary Gladden (Boyton Beach, Fla.) grabbed an offensive board and scored in the paint at the 10:51 mark, but the momentum was short-lived as Simonds drilled a pair of three-pointers in a matter of 11 seconds to put the game out of reach for good.
For the Monks, freshman forward Quinn Richardson-Newton (Saco, Maine) scored 12 points with six rebounds and a pair of steals, junior guard Craig Luschenat (Boston, Mass.) and sophomore guard John Crawley (Fitchburg, Mass.) netted eight points apiece, and sophomore guard Andrew Ruffen (Salem, N.H.) chipped in with six points in eight minutes on the floor. In all, 10 different SJC players found the scoring ledger in the victory.
Hogervorst and Booth led the Cadets with 17 points apiece while sophomore forward Kevin Ross (Ontario, Calif.) contributed nine points and six rebounds, and Gladden chipped in seven points and five caroms in a losing effort.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 13-3 in the history of the series with Norwich University and has now defeated the Cadets in eight-consecutive meetings dating back to the 2010-11 season.
Both teams return to action Saturday, when Saint Joseph's hosts GNAC-rival Albertus Magnus College at 2:00 PM and Norwich hosts Johnson & Wales University in a conference tilt slated to start at 3:00 PM.
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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.
