SAINT ROSE (1-12/1-8 NE-10) HOSTS SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE (8-6/4-5 NE-10)
Wednesday | January 10, 2012 | 7:30 pm
Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium (1,000) | Game #14 | Albany, New York
"Saint Rose Employee Night"
Live Stats | Live Audio | Media Notes
The Plot: Two venerable coaches in Southern New Hampshire's Stan Spirou and
Brian Beaury of Saint Rose match wits. They have combined for 1,058 wins throughout their careers and are among the top-10 NCAA Division II active leaders in winning percentage.
Employee Night: All Saint Rose employees and a guest receive free admission.
Last Time Out: Saint Rose was outscored 14-4 over the final 5:51 as visiting Stonehill completed its comeback bid to defeat the Golden Knights 63-59 in Saturday's
Northeast-10 Conference meeting. Sophomore forward
Dominykas Milka provided a major spark for the Golden Knights with 22 points, on 11-of-13 shooting, and seven rebounds in 33 minutes of reserve duty. Senior guard
Rob Gutierrez filled up the box score to the tune of 13 points, seven boards and four assists. Stonehill junior guard Brian Hamor led all scorers with 23 points in a homecoming for the former Bishop Gibbons star.
Last Meeting: The Golden Knights held Southern New Hampshire to 38.3 percent (23-for-60) shooting from the floor and withstood a late charge by the host Penmen to chalk up a 72-66 victory last January 13 in Manchester.
Gutierrez tossed in a career-high 27 points and senior forward
Brian Hanuschak recorded his fifth “double-double” of the year for Saint Rose, which also benefitted from four key free throws in the final minute by junior guard
Andre Pope. Conversely, Southern New Hampshire went 1-for-4 from the stripe throughout the last 60 seconds.
Hanuschak tossed in 11 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, while Pope finished with nine points, six rebounds and six assists to go with a pair of steals.
Senior forward Tory Stapleton wound up with 16 points, 13 rebounds and four assists; while junior guard Greg DeSantis scored a team-high 18 points to lead the Penmen.
The Series: Tonight marks a meeting of two programs that are both among the top-10 in NCAA Division II annals in terms of winning percentage…The series appropriately stands tied at 13-13 although the Penmen had won three straight prior to the Golden Knights victory in Manchester last January…The two teams first met in the 1995 NCAA Tournament Northeast Regional Semifinal that the host Penmen won 113-110 in overtime…That game is widely described as “One For The Ages”.
Scouting Saint Rose (1-12/1-8 NE-10): Saturday's four-point loss continued a season-long heartbreaking trend as eight of the Golden Knights' 12 setbacks have been by a total of 27 points…Milka was named to the NE-10 weekly honor roll on Monday after he averaged 18.5 and 9.5 rebounds throughout two games…Saint Rose has been outscored 220-177 from the foul line this season, as their opponents have taken 52 more attempts…Milka leads four double-digit scorers with 13.2 points per-game in 22.9 minutes off the bench…He is also hauling in a team-leading 6.2 rebounds on a regular basis…Gutierrez is averaging 12.8 ppg, while Pope and Hanuschak are producing 10.8 ppg and 10.3 ppg respectively.
Scouting Southern N.H. (8-6/4-5 NE-10): Southern New Hampshire had its three-game win streak snapped with Saturday's 80-67 setback at Assumption…Freshman forward Elijah Bonsignore is averaging a team-leading 11.4 points and stands third in the NE-10 with 28 blocks…Three of the team's five scorers (Bonsignore, BJ Cardarelli at 10.6 ppg, Aleksandar Dobrovic at 9.3 ppg) thus far are freshmen…The first-year players have accounted for 49.5 percent of SNHU's point production…The Penmen have made at least five 3-pointers in every game this season…They rank second in the NE-10 with 113 on the year thanks in part to 36.1 percent accuracy, the league's fourth best mark…Assistant coach Jeff Gore ('93) stands fourth on the Golden Knights all-time scoring list with 1,803 points…He was inducted into the
Saint Rose Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
Up Next: Both teams return to conference action with 3:30 pm start times Saturday. The Golden Knights head to Waltham, MA to take on Bentley, while the Penmen will host New Haven.
