MANCHESTER, NH – The College of Saint Rose wrapped up its 2008-09 regular-season campaign on a high note with a 75-61 Northeast-10 Conference victory at Saint Anselm tonight. The Golden Knights (18-9/13-9 NE-10) have now won five of their last six and nine of their previous 11 heading into their opening round conference tournament game on Sunday against Saint Michael's. Tip-off is set for 2:00 pm at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium between the seventh and tenth seeds.

As for this evening, Saint Rose forced the host Hawks (4-23/2-20 NE-10) into 18 turnovers that the Golden Knights turned into 26 points. Meanwhile, their bench outscored Saint Anselm's 31-6 as 10 different players figured in the scoring column.

Freshman center Ali Johnson was responsible for much of the latter. Johnson, who had not scored a bucket while playing a mere 52 minutes all year, finished with 15 points and nine rebounds throughout 23 minutes of reserve duty.

Senior guard Dana Brown also had a marquee night for Saint Rose. Brown finished in double-figures scoring for the 24th time this year with 18 points and in the process became only the 21st player in school annals to reach the 1,000 point plateau. Also, sophomore forward Amy Voelkel went 3-for-4 from the floor on the way to nine points, nine rebounds and four steals in just her sixth career start.

Saint Rose led throughout the final 29 minutes following three lead changes up to that juncture. Saint Anselm did manage to come back from an eight point, 37-29, halftime deficit to make it a two point, 45-43, ballgame with 14:15 to go. Junior forward Courtney May finished inside and freshman forward Megan Howard knocked down a jumper to close out the surge.

However, the Golden Knights answered with an 18-4 run that afforded them a 16 point, 63-47, cushion with 6:20 remaining. Six players contributed to the spurt. Brown initiated it with a jumper, freshman guard Ashley Rath boosted the lead to double-digits with a 3-pointer and junior guard Jenna Hughes  capped it with a “three” of her own, her only field goal attempt all evening.

Howard hit her “double-double” average with 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead Saint Anselm, which saw it season come to a close. May wound up with 13 points; while junior guard Justine Lyons and sophomore guard Jennifer Gureckis added 11 and 10 points respectively.

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