Saints Rally Past Mountaineers In Tri-State Shootout
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph's (VT) (6-1) | 47 | 50 | 97 |
| Southern Vt. (0-5) | 52 | 36 | 88 |
| Bennington, Vt | |||
| St. Joseph's (VT) | Southern Vt. |
|---|---|
| Pts: Rahiem Small - 20 | Pts: Jordan Santiago - 26 |
| Reb: Rahiem Small - 12 | Reb: Robert McQueen - 10 |
| Ast: 2 Players (#44, #11 - 4) | Ast: Jordan Santiago - 3 |
| Team Statistics | St. Joseph's (VT) | Southern Vt. |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goal % | 50.0% (38-76 ) | 46.8% (29-62 ) |
| Rebounds | 51 | 36 |
| Assists | 17 | 6 |
| Turnovers | 11 | 16 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 22 | 9 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 18 | 7 |
| Bench Pts | 34 | 6 |
BENNINGTON, Vt.- The Fighting Saints of St. Josephs College (VT) used a strong second half to defeat the Southern Vermont College Mountaineers 97-88 on Friday evening. The win puts the Saints in the championship of the Tri-State Shootout while the Mountaineers will now play in the consolation game.
The Mountaineers led at half time 52-47 behind some hot shooting from the Mountaineers' Travis Severs who had 16 points at the break. As a team the Mountaineers shot 65.5% from the field in the first half. St Josephs, whose only loss this season was to the number two team in the country in Middlebury, refused to give in. Using strong performances from Rahiem Smalls and Jamie Rajda the Saints outscored the Mountaineers 50-36 in the second half. For the game Smalls scored 20 points on 7-15 shooting. Rajda added 12 points to go with 4 assists.
Jordan Santiago led the Mountaineers with a career high of 26 points. The Mountaineers led 66-64 with 14:02 left in the game before the Saints KJ Jackson gathered the rebound off his own missed free throw and was able to put in an easy lay up to tie the game at 66. After Avery Mitchell missed a long jumper, the Saints' KJ Jackson grabbed one of his nine rebounds for the game and quickly got the ball ahead to Jamie Rajda who drilled a 3 pointer to give the Saints the lead with 13:39 remaining. After that the Saints never relinquished the lead and were able to hold on for the 97-88 victory.
With the win the Saint's improve to 6-1 overall. They will play the RPI Engineers at 4:00 in the championship of the Tri State Shootout. The Engineers were able to hold off the MCLA Trailblazers 98-96 in the tournaments other first round game. With the loss the Mountaineers drop to 0-5 on the season. They will play MCLA in the tournaments consolation game at 2:00pm on Saturday.
