Northeast-10 Tournament Semifinals
No. 9 Adelphi (21-10, 12-10 NE-10) at No. 5 Saint Anselm (20-9, 14-8 NE-10)
Thursday, March 4, 2010 - Manchester, N.H.
Game Time: 7 p.m. - Stoutenburgh Gym
Live Stats: livestats.prestosports.com/saintanselm
On the Air: www.northeast10.tv

Thursday's Men's Matchup and the All-Time Series: Tonight's game features the visiting Panthers of Adelphi University, the ninth seed in the NE-10 Tournament, and your Saint Anselm Hawks. The Hawks are the fifth seed and are coming off a road win at Le Moyne in the NE-10 Quarterfinals on Monday night that snapped a six-game winning streak for Le Moyne in the all-time series. Tonight's game is the second meeting of the season between the two teams as the Hawks knocked off then-No. 25 Adelphi by a 78-69 final on January 9th at Stoutenburgh Gym. This marks the first postseason clash between the two teams in 10 years as the two met in the 2000 NCAA Regional Final at Southern Connecticut. Saint Anselm came out on top by a 76-72 final in that game and earned the program's only trip to the Elite Eight, which was in Louisville, Kentucky that season. The all-time series stands at 12-11 in favor of Adelphi, but the series is even at 5-5 in the last 10 meetings dating back 50 years. The first-ever game between the two came on March 1, 1958, with the Panthers taking an 84-61 final in Garden City.

Prior to the Game: Prior to the start of tonight's game, the Saint Anselm men's basketball program will be recognizing senior guard Greg Vetrano, who scored his 1000th career point in the team's NE-10 Tournament First Round win over Pace on February 27th.

Tonight's Officials: The officials for tonight's game are Mark Shea, Harkeem Dixon and Carl Luciano. Alternate official is Lee Marelli.

Saint Anselm Connection: Adelphi head coach James Cosgrove, in his eighth season with the Panthers, is a 1987 alum of Saint Anselm College and a member of the Anselmian Athletic Club Hall of Fame. In fact, Cosgrove played under Saint Anselm head coach Keith Dickson in his first season in 1986-87. This is also the case in the other semifinal as UMass Lowell head coach Greg Herenda played for Merrimack head coach Bert Hammel. Cosgrove was a team captain his senior year as he helped the Hawks to an overall record of 25-5 and the Northeast-10 Conference Championship. Cosgrove scored 1,088 points and is 38th on the Saint Anselm all-time scoring list.

The Hawks in the Northeast-10 Tournament: This marks the 27th visit to the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament for Saint Anselm as the Hawks have qualified every year since joining the league. The Hawks have enjoyed great success as well, winning a league-best 40 games in the postseason tournament for a record .645 winning percentage. The Hawks have a league-best seven championships and 10 finals appearances and hold the league-record for semifinal appearances at 17, including the last two seasons. Six different Saint Anselm players have earned the NE-10 Tournament MVP Award, including most recently in back-to-back seasons by Jim Moore ‘06 in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Moore is currently an assistant coach for the Hawks in his second season.

Inside the Numbers: Saint Anselm enters tonight's game following a 74-67 road win at Le Moyne to reach the semifinals for the second straight season. The win over the Dolphins gave the Hawks the program's first 20-win season since 2005-2006. Under 24th-year head coach Keith Dickson, the Hawks have posted 11 20-win seasons and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament 11 times, including a regional championship 10 years ago in 1999-2000. Sitting at No. 6 in the latest NCAA East Region poll, Saint Anselm also hopes for its first NCAA bid since 2005-2006. Under coach Dickson, the Hawks have never gone longer than three seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Dynamic Duo: Saint Anselm senior guard Greg Vetrano scored his 1000th point at the 11:56 mark of the first half on Saturday vs. Pace, becoming the the 44th player in Saint Anselm history with 1,000 career points. By surpassing the 1,000-point plateau, himself and brother Chris Vetrano ‘08 are the first brothers in Saint Anselm history to each have 1,000 career points. Vetrano joins teammate Thomas Baudinet in the 1,000-point club, marking the first time since the 2005-2006 team that the Hawks had multiple 1,000-point scorers on the same team. On that squad, the team boasted a four 1,000-point scorers in all-time leading scorer Matt Cahill, Jim Moore, Darlington Okerulu (all-time leading rebounder) and Jim Holsworth.

Climbing the Assists List: Senior guard Greg Vetrano has ranked among the Northeast-10 leaders all season in assists and is also climbing the Saint Anselm career list in that category. Vetrano enters tonight's game with 393 career assists, including 144 this season, and is 11th in Saint Anselm history in that category. Most recently, Greg passed his brother, Chris, to move into his current position in 11th place. Brendan McCarthy is up next for Vetrano in 10th place with 402 assists during his career.