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Men's Hoop: Purple Knights Edge Past Bentley, 66-64

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Created on Thursday, 09 February 2012 05:23

Written by George Commo

Schilling's Late Tip-In Snaps Tie

Courtesy St. Michael's Sports Information

COLCHESTER - Senior Tyler Schilling's (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka) tip-in with exactly eight seconds remaining snapped a tie and lifted the Saint Michael's College men's basketball team over regional heavyweight Bentley University, 66-64, on Wednesday in the Ross Sports Center.

The Purple Knights snapped a six-game losing streak in improving to 8-14 overall and 7-11 in the Northeast-10 Conference, downing the Falcons for the third time in the last four meetings. Bentley, which has qualified for the past seven NCAA Tournaments, is 15-7 and 11-7. Saint Michael's also knocked off the Falcons on Nov. 30, sweeping a home-and-home regular-season series from Bentley for the first time since 2000-01.

Sophomore Mike Holton Jr. (Portland, Ore./The Winchendon School) tallied 24 points for the hosts, going 7-of-10 on free throws, and junior Travis Warech (Pine Brook, N.J./Montville) buried a trio of three-pointers en route to scoring 10 points. Warech is now 24 points short of becoming the 13th Purple Knight junior with 1,000. Schilling ended with eight points, and freshman Corey Crawford (Dover, Del./The Phelps School) notched seven points, six rebounds and four assists.

Saint Michael's limited Bentley to 8-of-27 three-point performance after the visitors entered the night leading the league in triples, averaging 10.7 per game, and to 29.6 percent shooting from deep, down from a 38.6 percent showing that was good for second in the NE-10. Senior Sam Leclerc (Fayette, Maine/Winthrop) scored 23 of his game-high 28 points in the second half, going 4-of-7 from three-point range and 10-of-13 on free throws, while sophomore Jasper Grassa (Lynn, Mass./Lynn Classical) also hit four threes and finished with 16 points. Senior Kevin Kettl (Hersey, Pa./Hershey) had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Leclerc knotted the game with 27.2 seconds left by hitting two free throws, but Schilling followed a Crawford miss by tipping home the loose ball near the rim with exactly 8.0 ticks showing on the clock. Bentley got off a mid-range tying attempt at the buzzer, which was off the mark.

After leading by as many as nine points, 35-26, on a Schilling hoop nine seconds into the second stanza, Saint Michael's yielded a 16-3 run to fall behind by a 46-41 count by 13:47 on a Kettl lay-up. The Purple Knights eventually trailed by as many as seven points, at 8:16 following two Kettl free throws, but Warech provided a tying three at 6:24 and a tying free throw at 5:04. Grassa drained a go-ahead triple with 4:33 remaining, but the hosts held Bentley to Leclerc's two free throws from there. Holton went on a personal 5-0 run to push Saint Michael's ahead, 64-62, with 58.8 seconds remaining, leading up to Leclerc's freebies.

Among the eight lead changes in the first half were three in the opening 4:26, as Bentley turned a 6-5 deficit into a six-point lead via a 7-0 run. Grassa's three at 13:54 provided the Falcons with a 12-6 advantage, but five straight Purple Knight points knotted the game, with Crawford hitting a triple at 9:14 to tie the score at 18. The lead traded hands three times in a later 49-second stretch, and the hosts turned a 26-24 deficit into a 33-26 halftime lead by holding the Falcons scoreless in the final 5:03. Junior Derek Knutty (Rocklin, Calif./Whitney) had four points and three rebounds during the run.

The Purple Knights hit the road for the next two games, beginning with a 3:30 p.m. match-up at Stonehill College on Saturday.