STANDISH, ME - Emerson College (12-6, 8-3 GNAC) slipped past Saint Joseph's (13-5, 7-4), 79-77, on Saturday afternoon to gain sole possession of second place in the conference. Ray Eatmon '10 (Huntington, NY) scored 21 points to lead the Monks, while Tyler Kelley '11 (Saco, ME) was 3-4 from three-point range and netted 19 points in the defeat. Emerson's Jeremy Shannon '10 (Lowell, MA) led all scorers with 27 points.

St. Joe's trailed 48-36 at halftime, but outscored Emerson 41-31 in the second half and nearly tied the contest in the final seconds, but a driving jumper by Elbie Murphy ‘09 (Loudonville, NY) just missed as time expired, leaving the Lions on top, 79-77.

The Monks owned their largest lead 8:57 into the game after Scot Vachon ‘09 (Schenectady, NY) made a pair of freebies to put his team up 20-11. Three-pointers from Dan Boylan ‘12 (Royal Oak, MI) on the Lions' subsequent two possessions cut the SJC lead to three points, 20-17, less than a minute later.

Monks guard Chris Petzy ‘12 (East Kingston, NH) connected from three-point distance with 9:34 left in the half to provide the Royal Blue with a 24-17 cushion, but the Lions kept it a two-possession contest until Shannon drilled a long ball from NBA distance at the 5:45 mark to tie the game at 29 apiece.

The teams swapped leads in the next minute of play, and the Monks held a slim 32-31 lead after Kelley translated a slick Eatmon pass into a layup with 4:47 before the break. Emerson, led by 12 points from Shannon, went on to outscore St. Joe's 17-4 in the closing minutes of the half and took a 48-36 advantage into the locker room.

Kelley scored the first nine points of the second stanza for the Monks and his last bucket, a layup set up by an Eatmon dish, cut the Emerson lead to 52-47 with 14:52 to play.

Six minutes later, the Monks, trailing 64-58, opened a 10-0 run which was capped by a pair of Murphy freebies that saw the Monks take a 68-64 lead with 6:12 remaining. Another long three from Shannon at the 4:26 mark lifted the Lions to a 72-70 edge, but the Royal Blue countered with two free-throws from Eatmon and a jumpshot from Kelley to regain the lead, 74-72, a minute later.

Shannon and SJC guard Zach O'Brien ‘12 (Schenectady, NY) exchanged baskets in the next minute of play, as the Monks held the slim 76-74 advantage with 2:14 left.

On the next trip down the floor, after a time out, Emerson's Tome Messinger ‘11 (Florence, MA) made a three pointer from the top of the key off a set play to put the Lions up 77-76 with 38 seconds to go. On the subsequent SJC possession, Murphy drove the lane, was fouled, and made one of his FT attempts to tie the game at 77 apiece with 24 seconds left in regulation.

Shannon, whose last two drives to the hoop ended with Murphy swatting the ball out of midair, weaved his way to the basket and lofted a layup over the outstretched hands of Murphy to provide the visitors with a 79-77 lead with just three seconds remaining. St. Joe's got the ball past midcourt before calling timeout with 1.8 seconds left. Murphy received the ball off the inbounds pass and got a close-range shot off, but the ball rolled around the rim and out as the final buzzer rang.

Saint Joseph's held slim advantages in shooting percentage (50.9% to 49.9%) and rebounding (32-29), but was unable to capitalize on their trips to the line in the loss. The Monks got to the charity stripe 28 times, but converted just 16 of those attempts (57.1%). Emerson shot 80% (12-15) from the line in the victory.

For St. Joe's, Vachon had 10 points, five caroms and five assists and Chris Davis ‘11 (New York, NY) added seven points. O'Brien, Petzy and Murphy, who blocked three shots in the game, all netted six points.

For Emerson, Nathan Firn ‘12 (Wadesboro, NC) and Bryan Rouse ‘10 (East Greenwich, RI) both totaled 13 points and Boylan made three treys for nine points.

Saint Joseph's will play at Rivier College on Monday, February 2nd in a 7:00 PM conference contest, while Emerson is set to host Suffolk University on Monday at 7:00 PM.


Newspaper Box Score
Emerson College vs St. Joseph's (Me.)
01/30/09 3:00 PM at Standish, Maine
At Standish, Maine
EMERSON COLLEGE 79, ST. JOSEPH'S (ME.) 77
EMERSON COLLEGE (12-6, 8-3 GNAC)
Jeremy Shannon 11-16 1-2 27; Bryan Rouse 5-8 2-3 13; Nathan Firn 2-4 8-8 13;
Dan Boylan 3-6 0-0 9; Anthony Remias 2-8 0-0 6; Sam Newman-Beck 2-5 0-0 5;
Tom Messinger 1-5 0-0 3; Kabir Moss 1-2 0-0 2; Zach Cole 0-1 1-2 1; Alex
Dempsey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-55 12-15 79.
ST. JOSEPH'S (ME.) (13-5, 7-4 GNAC)
Ray Eatmon 8-10 5-7 21; Tyler Kelley 8-11 0-1 19; Scot Vachon 3-5 4-6 10;
Chris Davis 2-8 3-4 7; Zach O'Brien 3-8 0-0 6; Chris Petzy 2-4 0-2 6; Elbie
Murphy 1-8 4-8 6; Mitch Ouellet 1-1 0-0 2; Ben Baudanza-Sturks 0-0 0-0 0;
Alonso Davis 0-0 0-0 0; Alberto Rue 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-55 16-28 77.
Emerson College............... 48 31 - 79
St. Joseph's (Me.)............ 36 41 - 77
3-point goals--Emerson College 13-30 (Jeremy Shannon 4-5; Dan Boylan 3-5;
Anthony Remias 2-7; Nathan Firn 1-2; Sam Newman-Beck 1-3; Tom Messinger 1-5;
Bryan Rouse 1-2; Kabir Moss 0-1), St. Joseph's (Me.) 5-10 (Tyler Kelley 3-4;
Chris Petzy 2-3; Zach O'Brien 0-2; Elbie Murphy 0-1). Fouled out--Emerson
College-Tom Messinger, St. Joseph's (Me.)-None. Rebounds--Emerson College 29
(Bryan Rouse 7), St. Joseph's (Me.) 32 (Ray Eatmon 6). Assists--Emerson
College 13 (Sam Newman-Beck 5), St. Joseph's (Me.) 14 (Scot Vachon 5). Total
fouls--Emerson College 21, St. Joseph's (Me.) 13. Technical fouls--Emerson
College-Tom Messinger, St. Joseph's (Me.)-None.