NH college roundup: Saint Anselm, SNHU men advance to NE-10 semifinals
Mar. 3—The Saint Anselm and SNHU men's basketball teams both earned road victories on Sunday to advance to the NE-10 semifinals.
Sixth-seeded Saint Anselm (16-14) defeated No. 2 Adelphi, 80-71, while fifth-seeded SNHU (19-10) topped No. 4 Pace, 83-76.
Sean McCarthy matched a season high to lead Saint Anselm with 26 points, with Zac Taylor adding 20 and Tyler Arbuckle scoring 19.
The Hawks will face No. 6 Southern Connecticut State in the conference semifinals on Wednesday.
Five players scored in double figures for SNHU, led by Alex Rivera with 23 points. Matt Becht added 15 points, followed by Kurtis Henderson (13), Preston Santos (12) and Derrick Grant Jr. (11).
The Penmen will take on top-ranked St. Michael's in the NE-10 semifinals on Wednesday.
Men's basketball
NCAA Division III
Keene State 109, Eastern University 85: Junior guard Octavio Brito scored a career-high 40 points to lead the host Owls in their second-round contest. KSC, which is ranked No. 5 nationally, improved to 26-3 and advanced to the round of 16 for the sixth time since 2004. The Owls' next game will come Friday night at No. 7 Guilford (North Carolina).
Women's basketballFranklin Pierce 78, SNHU 67: In the quarterfinals of the NE-10 tournament, the fifth-seeded Ravens rallied from a seven-point deficit with five minutes remaining to top the fourth-seeded Penmen. Anna Badosa Soler led FPU (20-9) with 25 points and Leana Heitmann added 24. Jess Knight had 24 for SNHU (18-9). Franklin Pierce will face top-seeded Bentley in the NE-10 semifinals on Thursday.
Men's hockeyPlymouth State 3, Fitchburg State 0: The MASCAC tournament final has become the Plymouth State Invitational. Led by a tight defense and senior goalie Kalle Andersson (13 saves), the host Panthers copped their fifth straight league tournament championship and received the accompanying automatic berth in the upcoming NCAA Division III tournament. The selection show for the NCAA field is set for Monday morning.
Payton Schaly, who was named the tournament MVP, Connor Tait and Jeromey Rancourt scored for No. 11 PSU, which improved to 23-2-2.
Dartmouth 4, Yale 1: In Hanover, the Big Green accomplished something they haven't done since the 2010-11 season: receive a first-round bye in the ECAC tournament.
Goalie Cooper Black made 19 saves and Auburn's Cooper Flinton scored a key insurance goal in the third period as Dartmouth secured the No. 4 seed for the 12-team tournament. The Big Green will have next weekend off before hosting the highest remaining seed the weekend of March 15-17 in a best-of-three series.
On Saturday, Yale led 1-0 in the first period on Ian Carpentier's laser from just inside the blue line.
Three minutes later, with Dartmouth on the power play, defenseman CJ Foley knotted the score on a slap shot, and Eric Charpentier gave the Big Green a 2-1 lead at 12:28 of the second period by scoring on a rebound of a blocked shot from the left wing circle.
Flinton scored his 15th goal of the season at 9:06 of the third, flicking home a rebound of a blocked shot from the bottom of the right circle. Sean Chisholm scored into an empty net for the final margin.
First-round ECAC matchups (single-elimination) are as follows:
Friday: Princeton at Harvard, 7 p.m.; Yale at St. Lawrence, 7 p.m.
Saturday: Brown at Union, 4 p.m.; RPI at Clarkson, 7 p.m.
The top four seeds, in order, are Quinnipiac, Cornell, Colgate and Dartmouth.
