Rams Fall Short As Saints Edge Suffolk, 87-84

The Emmanuel College Saints held off a late rally by the Suffolk University Rams for an 87-84 victory on Thursday evening in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action.

Senior Xavier Everson (Rochester, N.Y.) finished with a team-high 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting from the field for the Saints as Emmanuel finished the game with 10 players scoring at least one field goal.

Freshman Caleb Unni (Winchester, Mass.) netted 27 points for the Rams and had three late steals to help the Rams pull within three in the closing minutes of the contest.

Trailing by 12 at 83-71 with 3:26 remaining sophomore Matt Powers (Westwood, Mass.) would connect on a three-pointer. Unni would force two steals off the inbound passes converting easy layups to bring the Rams storming back into the game.

With 1:56 remaining on the clock Unni would strike again making a jumper and then converting on a free-throw on the bonus play to bring the Rams within two points at 83-81.

Freshman Rashad Dixon (Brockton, Mass.) would end the Saints' scoring drought as he hit one of two free throws with 1:20 left in regulation to make it a three-point Saints edge. Unni answered with a free-throw by Everson put in the first Emmanuel College field goal in three minutes to push it back to a four-point game.

After a lay-in by senior Colin Halpin (Melrose, Mass.) to bring the Rams back within a field-goal, junior D.J. Fazio (Methuen, Mass.) would connect on a free-throw with seventeen seconds remaining to bring it back to the final 87-84 score.

Emmanuel controlled the game in the paint holding a 45-40 edge in rebounds and also scored 40 of their points down low. The Saints held a 23-9 edge in second chance points.

Halpin finished the game with 23 points for Suffolk, including a 9-for-13 performance from the free-throw line as 31 personal fouls called on the Saints would give the Rams 39 chances as a team from the charity stripe. The Rams finished with four players in double digits scoring. Alongside Unni and Halpin, were senior Chris Torres (Brockton, Mass.) who had 12 while Powers netted 10.

Junior Alex Myers (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) finished the game with 12 points, while Dixon scored all eight of his game total in the second half on 3-for-4 shooting from the field.

The win moves Emmanuel to an even 4-4 mark on the season in GNAC play (4-11 overall).

Suffolk drops their seventh in a row as they fall to 4-10 on the year and 2-5 in the GNAC.

The Saints will be idle until Monday when they travel to Emerson College for a 1:00pm GNAC contest with the Lions. Suffolk will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they head to Providence to take on Johnson & Wales University for a 3:00pm GNAC matchup with the Wildcats.