BOSTON, MA - Elbie Murphy '09 (Loudonville, NY) had 22 points and tied a career high with 10 assists to help lift Saint Joseph's (17-7, 11-6 GNAC) to a vital 82-75 victory over Emmanuel College (14-10, 11-6) on Tuesday evening. With the triumph and one conference game remaining, the Monks are guaranteed to host a GNAC tournament quarterfinal game as either the #3 or #4 seed. Rob Williams-Hinton ‘09 (Oak Park, MI) scored a game-high 23 points for the Saints in defeat.

St. Joe's never trailed in the conference contest and held a 16-6 advantage after Tyler Kelley ‘11 (Saco, ME) drained a shot from beyond the arc three minutes into the first half. Emmanuel rallied back to blank the Monks 12-0 in the next four minutes of play, however, to gain their only share of the lead in the game, 18-18, after Isaiah Duke ‘12 (Albany, NY) converted a layup at the 13:23 mark.

On the next Monks' possession, SJC guard Chris Petzy ‘12 (East Kingston, NH) made a three-pointer to ignite a 13-1 run and propel the visitors to a 31-19 lead. Alonso Davis ‘10 (Richmond, VA) capped the run with a bucket in the paint and his second score of the surge. For the rest of the first stanza, St. Joe's was ahead by at least 10 points and went into the locker room with a 46-35 cushion.

The Monks pushed their lead to 48-35 after Scot Vachon ‘09 (Schenectady, NY) made a layup on the first SJC drive of the second period and the teams essentially traded baskets for the next eight minutes, as St. Joe's held no less than a seven-point lead during the span. A three-pointer from Williams-Hinton with 10:54 left cut the visitors' lead to 60-54 and traditional three-point play from two minutes later from the junior guard lessened the deficit to five points, 64-59.

Saint Joseph's extended the lead to 72-61 in the next four minutes with an 8-2 outburst, as Chris Davis ‘11 (New York, NY) closed out the run with a layup off a Murphy pass at the 6:12 mark.

Trailing 77-69 with 30 seconds left, Williams-Hinton sandwiched a pair of three-pointers around two freebies from Vachon as seven seconds elapsed on the clock to cut the SJC advantage to 79-75. But Saint Joseph's went on to go 3-4 from the charity stripe in the final 20 seconds of play to earn an 82-75 victory.

St. Joe's outshot Emmanuel 47.5% to 42.1% from the floor and held a slight edge on the glass, 44-42, while dealing 24 assists on 29 buckets in the win.

For the Monks, Chris Davis added 13 points, Kelley netted 12 and Ray Eatmon ‘10 (Huntington, NY) chipped in with 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Vachon had nine points and five assists, Alonso Davis collected five rebounds and Murphy added six caroms and three steals to his stat line in the triumph.

For the Saints, Mike Jackson ‘10 (New York, NY) went 10-18 from the floor and had 20 points to go with eight assists and Duke notched 14 points in the loss.

Saint Joseph's will host first-place Lasell College on Saturday at 3:00 PM while Emmanuel will travel across town to Suffolk to face off against the Rams on the same day in a 4:00 PM tip-off.



Newspaper Box Score
St. Joseph's (Me.) vs Emmanuel College
2/17/09 7:30 p.m. at Jean Yawkey Center - Boston, Mass.
At Jean Yawkey Center - Boston, Mass.
ST. JOSEPH'S (ME.) 82, EMMANUEL COLLEGE 75
ST. JOSEPH'S (ME.) (17-7, 11-6 GNAC)
Elbie Murphy 7-12 6-7 22; Chris Davis 4-5 5-7 13; Tyler Kelley 5-11 0-0 12;
Ray Eatmon 5-11 0-3 10; Scot Vachon 2-5 5-6 9; Alonso Davis 2-3 0-0 4; Chris
Petzy 1-6 1-3 4; Mitch Ouellet 1-3 1-2 4; Alberto Rue 1-3 0-0 2; R. J.
Mattison 1-2 0-0 2; Anthony Savino 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-61 18-28 82.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE (14-10, 11-6 GNAC)
Rob Williams-Hinton 8-19 3-3 23; Mike Jackson 10-18 0-0 20; Isaiah Duke 5-15
4-6 14; Tyrone Buchanan 3-8 0-0 6; Chris Puzacke 3-4 0-0 6; Andres
Bustamante 2-4 0-0 4; Andre Fuller 1-2 0-0 2; Andy Crawford 0-0 0-0 0; Tony
Carter-Hill 0-6 0-0 0; J.P. Ventura 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-76 7-9 75.
St. Joseph's (Me.)............ 46 36 - 82
Emmanuel College.............. 35 40 - 75
3-point goals--St. Joseph's (Me.) 6-11 (Tyler Kelley 2-3; Elbie Murphy 2-4;
Chris Petzy 1-3; Mitch Ouellet 1-1), Emmanuel College 4-13 (Rob
Williams-Hinton 4-7; Mike Jackson 0-2; Tony Carter-Hill 0-4). Fouled
out--St. Joseph's (Me.)-None, Emmanuel College-None. Rebounds--St. Joseph's
(Me.) 44 (Ray Eatmon 9), Emmanuel College 42 (Andres Bustamante 10).
Assists--St. Joseph's (Me.) 24 (Elbie Murphy 10), Emmanuel College 20 (Mike
Jackson 8). Total fouls--St. Joseph's (Me.) 11, Emmanuel College 22.
Technical fouls--St. Joseph's (Me.)-None, Emmanuel College-None. A-450