COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team fell to defending 2016 NCAA Tournament regional runner-up Saint Anselm College, 104-87, on Tuesday evening in the Ross Sports Center. The Purple Knights are 0-5 overall and 0-3 in the Northeast-10 Conference, while the Hawks improved to 1-2 and 1-2.

Sophomore Levi Holmes III (East Brunswick, N.J./Rutgers Prep) had 19 points in 20 minutes for the hosts, shooting 6-of-7 overall, including 3-of-3 on three-pointers, while hitting all four free throw tries. Senior Zaire Williams (Paterson, N.J./Newark Academy) turned in 15 points and three assists, shooting 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, and classmate Matt Bonds (Accokeek, Md./North Point) collected 14 points, six rebounds and two steals.

Junior Colin Richey (Upton, Mass./Choate Rosemary Hall) shot 4-of-8 en route to 11 points, three helpers and two steals, while first-year Eli DiGrande (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex) notched seven points and five boards. The Purple Knights shot 50.0 percent from the floor, 58.3 percent (7-for-12) from beyond the arc, and 84.2 percent on free throws while holding leads in paint (46-32), second-chance (12-7) and fast-break (9-6) points.

Sophomore Tim Guers paced Saint Anselm with 30 points and eight assists, shooting 11-of-16. Classmate Cody Ball notched 22 points, seven rebounds, four steals and two blocks, while senior Harrison Taggart had 20 points and four assists, shooting 8-of-10. All three hit four threes, with Taggart only taking five tries. First-year Brenden Vessichio scored 10 points in 12 minutes, senior Chris Braley turned in nine points and 14 rebounds, while junior Taylor Fortin had nine points and seven helpers. The Hawks, who qualified for the last four NCAA Tournaments, shot 61.0 percent overall and 53.6 percent (15-of-28) from three.

The teams exchanged five leads in the first half, with a 7-0 run pushing the Purple Knights to their largest advantage at 18-12 with 13:38 left. Bonds had a go-ahead three-point play in that stretch before Richey picked up a steal and led DiGrande for a breakaway lay-up. Bonds' steal on the next Hawk possession led to first-year Thomas Jackson III's (Middletown, Conn./Holderness School) own fast-break bucket. Taggart knotted the game on a lay-in, but Jackson hit a go-ahead jumper at 12:07 to make it 20-18 before the next six points came from Hawks.

Williams' three-point play trimmed the deficit to 24-23, but Saint Anselm slowly pulled away on the strength of a 26-12 run. Bonds netted five of the Purple Knights' points, while Guers matched the hosts' entire figure with 12 points. After trailing 52-37 at halftime and by 16 following Braley's freebie early in the second, the Purple and Gold chipped its deficit to 10 when Holmes buried a three at 19:17 and DiGrande's put-back started a three-point play at 18:47. Guers netted 13 points in a key 3:29 stretch to give the visitors a 16-point lead three times, and Ball's triple pushed the lead to 74-56. Bonds hit a jumper and Richey dropped home a lay-in to produce a 12-point margin at 11:15, but Fortin scored the next five points to jumpstart a 7-0 run, and the hosts never again trailed by fewer than 13.

The Purple Knights, who play four of their next five games on the road, visit regionally-ranked Merrimack College on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Warriors are tied for eighth in the D2SIDA East Region Media Poll.