COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team lost to fourth-ranked Saint Anselm College, 95-72, on Tuesday evening during Northeast-10 Conference play in the Ross Sports Center. The Hawks, who were last year's NE10 Championship runner-up and qualified for their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament, are fourth in both of this week's national polls.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (3-5, 1-5 NE10), Saint Anselm (7-0, 4-0 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Junior Jordan Guzman (Staten Island, N.Y./Xaverian), 33 points (career high), 5 assists, 13-for-23 field goals, 5-for-9 three-pointers
• Sophomore Jason Heter (Andover, N.J./Newton), 9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 4-for-4 field goals
• Junior Eli DiGrande (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex), 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks
• Senior Winston Jones II (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream Central), 8 points, 6 rebounds
• Senior Derek Cheatom (Buffalo, N.Y./The Park School of Buffalo), 6 points, 5 rebounds
• Sophomore Alvi Rodriguez (Madrid, Spain/La Salle Maravillas), 4 points, 5 rebounds

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Senior Cody Ball, 17 points, 4-of-7 three-pointers
• Senior Tim Guers, 16 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals
• Junior Danny Evans, 15 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals, 2 blocks
• First-year Miles Tention, 13 points, 3 steals, 3-for-5 three-pointers

GAME FACTS

• Saint Michael's capped a three-game run during which each of its opponents was either nationally or regionally ranked.
• The Purple Knights played their final NE10 home game until Jan. 9.
• Guzman played a hand in 47 of the Purple Knights' 72 points. He scored 27 points in the second half alone.
• Saint Anselm had six players score in double figures.
• Saint Anselm entered the game first in the NE10 in rebounding (40.8) and second in rebound margin (+8.8), but Saint Michael's held a 37-30 advantage on the glass, including 14-9 on the offensive side.
• The Hawks were 17th in Division II in three-point defense (27.9%), but the Purple Knights shot 10-for-26 (38.5%) from deep.
• Saint Anselm was the 2018 NE10 Championship runner-up before qualifying for its sixth straight NCAA Tournament.
• The Hawks are fourth in both of this week's national polls.

THE ACTION

• Evans scored the first four points en route to Saint Anselm leading 6-0. Ball's three-pointer made it 12-2 at 15:39 of the first half.
• Buckets by Heter and Guzman trimmed the deficit to eight on a pair of occasions, but Guers had five points in a 9-0 run that extended the lead to 25-8 by 10:53.
• The Hawks led by as many as 24 toward the end of the period before Heter's corner three just before the buzzer made it 45-24 at halftime.
• Guzman's triple produced a 47-29 score at 18:58 of the second stanza, and Rodriguez's tip-in with 15:35 left kept Saint Michael's within 57-38, but sophomore Gustav Suhr-Jessen knocked down two freebies eight seconds later, and the visitors led by at least 20 points from there.
• Between 9:22 and 1:04, Guzman had a hand in 26 of the hosts' 29 points, scoring 18 - drilling three threes in 1:21 at one juncture - and dishing off for baskets that accounted for another eight points.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Saturday at Merrimack College, 3 p.m.
• The Warriors qualified for the past two NCAA Tournaments.