With only seven games remaining in the regular season, the Saint Anselm men’s basketball team has hit their stride and look to be a contending team in the postseason. As of late, the Hawks have seemed to develop a knack for coming out on top of close contests in exciting fashion.
Under the guidance of first-year head coach Chris Santo, who graduated from Saint Anselm in 2015 and played for two NE10-Champion basketball teams at the Hilltop, the men’s basketball team has gone on a hot streak in their recent contests. Despite dropping their most recent matchup to Assumption, the Hawks have put up a 13-8 record so far this season and have won 5 of their last six matchups, good enough for 5th place in the NE10 standings.
Their recent run of form has often gone down-to-the-wire, with four of their last 5 wins being decided by 5 points or less. Especially emblematic of these close games is their most recent win, a 78-75 thriller over the regionally ranked St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans. The contest featured ten lead changes and went down to the final possession.
The Hawks entered the second half of the contest with a 9 point lead but faced difficulty in the early going of the second half due to a burst of energy and physical defense from the Spartans. St. Thomas Aquinas opened the half with a 14-2 run that gave them the lead with 16 minutes remaining. The Spartans aggressive defense and full-court press initially gave the Hawks some issues and held them without a field goal for nearly six minutes. However, they remained composed, despite going from up 9 to start the half to down by as much as 8 points.
Eventually, the aggressive defensive style from the Spartans backfired, putting Saint A’s in the bonus for the remainer of the contest. After a scuffle over a loose ball led to a long break in the action, the Hawks responded: with less than 2 minutes remaining, freshman Erik Oliver-Bush got a breakaway opportunity and gave the Hawks a 74-73 lead with an emphatic dunk. After both teams traded free throws to put the score at 76-75, Junior Juju Ramirez iced the game for St. Anselm- with only 10 seconds left, Ramirez sunk a contested fallaway mid-range jumper to put the Hawks up 78-75. The Spartans still had a chance to tie, but were met with clean and suffocating defense, as both three-point attempts from the Spartans missed the mark and the Hawks escaped with the victory.
Throughout the contest, the Hawks managed to stay in the game with some excellent timing and clutch performances. When the Spartans went up 8 with 11 minutes to go, junior Josh Morisette responded with a well-timed three to stop the run. With the lead still at 7 with 9 minutes remaining, a steal led to a fastbreak bucket from senior Sean McCarthy. Especially helpful was the energy on both sides of the court from freshman Erik Oliver-Bush, who snagged a career-high three steals and got the crowd back into the game with some high-flying dunks. Bush has been a standout for St. Anselm so far, winning NE10 rookie of the week honors and leading the conference in scoring among freshmen.
The St. Anselm men’s basketball team has found their rhythm with seven games left and look to continue this run of form into the postseason. The Hawks will host New Haven at 7:30 PM on February 5th for their next matchup and are only two games back from third-place Assumption in the conference standings.