Feb. 24, 2009

Box Score

Sophomore F Tory Stapleton scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Southern New Hampshire over UMass Lowell, 70-62, Tuesday night in a Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball tilt at the SNHU Fieldhouse.

With the loss, UMass Lowell slipped to 21-6 overall and 16-6 in the NE-10, good for a tie for second place with Stonehill (16-6) and Merrimack (16-6).

The River Hawks, however, retained the No. 2 seed for the NE-10 Tournament and will bypass the first round and play the winner between No. 7 Southern New Hampshire (16-11, 12-10) and No. 10 Saint Rose (11-16, 9-13) Monday, Mar. 2 (7:00) in the Tournament quarterfinal.

Southern New Hampshire hosts Saint Rose Saturday at 2:00.

Junior G Kevin Carr (Lancaster, OH) led UMass Lowell with 17 points while freshman G Kyle Caiola (Parma, OH) added 14 points on 4 of 7 field goal shooting despite foul trouble most of the game. Junior G Craig Heatherly (Mishawaka, IN) chipped in 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.

"We just really got hurt around the basket on both ends," said UML Head Coach Greg Herenda. "Southern New Hampshire was very efficient offensively and shot the ball well from the three and in the paint.

"We had an excellent regular season and now we need to prepare for tournament play," Herenda added. "The bye will help us get some rest and heal our banged up bodies."

Stapleton converted 7 of 9 field goal attempts and scored 17 of his points in the second half. Freshman G Marcus Matthews added 10 points, hitting 4 of 5 field goals.

The Penmen shot .500 for the game (25-50), including .636 in the second half (14-22) while UMass Lowell shot .412 (21-51), but struggled to a .333 clip in the second half (9-27) after shooting .500 in the first stanza (12-24).

Turnovers were virtually even (SNHU 16, UML 15), but UML built a slight edge in points off turnovers, 17-11. The Penmen, however, buffered the edge with an 11-5 advantage in second chance points, the result of a 9-8 edge on the offensive glass.

A steal and conventional 3-point play by Caiola with 8:04 remaining game UMass Lowell a 51-50 lead, but the Penmen answered with a 9-1 run to post a 59-52 cushion with 4:39 left to play. Junior G Stephen Wood led the run with a jumper and trey.

UMass Lowell cut the lead to three on two occasions, the latest on a layup by Heatherly with 1:29 left (65-62), but SNHU converted 5 of 8 free throws while the River Hawks shot 0-4 to end the game.

"We cannot win by just shooting perimeter shots," Herenda said. "We needed to score more around the basket and we did not and SNHU had a lot to do with that."