Ant Lessane with 11 points in the second half to help spark the win

RINDGE, N.H. (February 11, 2014) – Senior forward Ellis Cooper (Northampton, Mass.) returned Tuesday night from a two-week layoff due to injury, and didn’t look like he missed a beat with an inspiring double-double of 25 points and 12 rebounds to help the Franklin Pierce University men’s basketball team rally from a double-digit second-half deficit for a thrilling 76-75 win over Southern New Hampshire at The Fieldhouse in Rindge.

Franklin Pierce won its second in a row to improve to 18-4 overall and 13-4 in the Northeast-10, thus setting up a huge first-place showdown at Saint Anselm on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.) in Manchester. SNHU dipped to 11-10 and 8-9 in league play.

Cooper was 9-of-14 from the floor, including going 5-for-8 with 12 points in the second half alone to help the Ravens mount a furious comeback.

Rodney Sanders capped a quick 6-0 spurt by the Penmen midway through the half, which staked them to a 61-50 advantage.

Up until that point in the second half, it was all SNHU, as the Ravens could not find an answer for the Penmen’s stellar offensive play.

Things, however, finally began to change for the Ravens, and junior guard Paul Becklens (Boston, Mass.) got things started with a pair of twisting layups down the lane. He then sandwiched a three-pointer and a pair of foul shots around two Cooper free throws to help bring the Ravens to within a point at 62-61 with 5:41 left.

Cooper laid in a pair of buckets minutes later to knot the score up each time, and the Ravens were finally able to go on top with 90 seconds remaining on a pair of Ryen Vilmont (Philadelphia, Pa.) free throws to make it 71-70.

Cooper hit two freebies of his own, and Vilmont added another foul shot to make it 74-70, but Elijah Bonsignore kept things interesting with a basket to once again make it a one possession game.

Vilmont, however, had other ideas and dropped in two foul shots with :04 left to seal the win, and render Bonsignore’s buzzer-beating three-pointer meaningless to the final outcome.

Becklens finished the game with 16 points, while Ant Lessane (Brooklyn, N.Y.) came off the pine to net 11 points, which all came in the second half thanks to three huge three-pointers. Donte Gittens (Hartford, Conn.) added 10 points, and Vilmont finished with eight as his 6-of-7 effort from the free throw line shook off a tough shooting night for the junior forward.

Sanders netted a team-high 20 points for the Penmen, while Chris Walters and Mike Stys each contributed 14.

Both teams shot 44 percent from the field, but the Ravens were able to help themselves at the foul line by knocking down 23-of-26 attempts for an 89-percent average. Franklin Pierce was 11-of-12 at the foul line in the final 20 minutes.

The first half went back and forth with nine lead changes. The Ravens held a 29-23 lead, but SNHU stormed back with a 10-2 rally, keyed by four points from Sanders, to go up 33-31 with :55 left until halftime. Cooper settled things down with a layup at the other end, and the game was tied at 33-all heading into the intermission.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men’s basketball, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu. To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men’s basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)