NEW LONDON, N.H. – Colby-Sawyer junior Dana Bean (Franklin, N.H.) made two free throws with 3.8 seconds to play to break a tie and lift the Chargers to a 96-94 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win over Saint Joseph's College of Maine.
Colby-Sawyer improves to 12-10 overall and 6-3 in the GNAC. The Chargers will play their final regular season home game on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Emmanuel. Saint Joseph's has lost three in a row to drop to 15-7 overall and 5-4 in conference action. The Monks host Norwich on Saturday with a 2 p.m. tip.
The Monks held a 12-point lead with five minutes to play when Colby-Sawyer began its comeback. A Patrick Coffey (Westford, Mass.) three-pointer and a Bean jumper in the paint cut the deficit to seven, 88-81. Saint Joseph's stopped the run when sophomore Jack Casale (Portland, Maine) stole the ball and ran the length of the court for a dunk to put the visitors back in front 90-81.
First-year Terrence Harvey Jr. (Smyrna Ga.) went on a 5-0 run of his own to pull Colby-Sawyer within four points. Saint Joseph's Darian Berry (Rochester, N.H.) made a pair of free throws, but was answered by a Jourdain Bell (Manchester, N.H.) trey to make the score 92-89. A free throw by Coffey for Colby-Sawyer and two from Saint Joseph's Ian Mileikis (Auburn, Maine) gave the visitors a 94-90 advantage with 1:24 to play.
On the ensuing possession, Patrick Coffey was fouled when shooting a three-pointer that went in and calmly made the free throw to complete the four-point play and tie the game at 94-94. After a couple of empty possessions, Colby-Sawyer's Bean came down with an offensive rebound and was fouled when attempting a put-back. He stepped to the line and made both of his free throws to put the Chargers on top 96-94 with 3.8 seconds to go. Saint Joseph's threw the ball into the front court and called timeout to set up a final play. On the inbounds pass, KJ Synvrit (Miami, Fla.) came up with a deflection leading to a desperation heave from just inside the half court line that came up short.
Coffey led the Chargers with 25 points. Bean finished with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting to go with eight rebounds. Bell contributed 18 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals. He moved into seventh in career scoring with 1431, passing Mike Dias '15. Bell also moved into eighth in made three-pointers with 171. Synvrit added 10 points.
Casale, the conference's leading scorer, led all player with 31 points on 11-of-20 shooting. Berry was 9-of-13 from the floor for 27 points. Mileikis filled up the box score with 18 points (9-9 FT), eight assists and six rebounds. Senior Marc Corey (Londonderry, N.H.) rounded out the top four scorers for the Monks with 12 points.
Colby-Sawyer shot 52.8% from the floor, 42.9% from beyond the arc. The Monks were 49.2% from the field and 42.4% from long range.
Saint Joseph's was 20-of-23 from the free throw line, while Colby-Sawyer went 11-of-22.
COURTESY OF COLBY-SAWYER SPORTS INFORMATION