Box Score RIVERDALE, NY – Nick Griffin (Rockville, MD/Col. Zadok Magruder (George Washington)) and Quadir Welton (Philadelphia, PA / Math, Civics and Science Charter) combined to score 36 points for Saint Peter's men's basketball en route to a 69-50, thumping over Manhattan College on Sunday night. The win gives Saint Peter's the season sweep over Manhattan for the second straight season and improves the Peacocks Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) record to 10-6 on the season and 14-12 overall.
Welton scored a game-high 19 points and matched his career best of 14 rebounds for the fourth time in his career leading to his sixth double-double of the season. Griffin scored 17 points on 5-6 shooting from long range marking the third time this season he has hit five or more three-pointers in a game and seventh time he has made four or more in a single contest. Trevis Wyche (Neptune, NJ/Saint Peter's Prep) added eights, which all came in the second half, and dished out a team-best five assists.
"I thought Manhattan had great energy to start the game; I was wondering after the emotional game they had two nights ago, how much energy they would have and they really had them ready to play," said head coach John Dunne. "I thought that they were attacking our ball screen defense really well. But we felt that we had some miscommunication and gave them a couple of layups and they still only had 29 (points) at the half. We knew that if we could get in a rhythm offensively, that we would be ok in the second half, so it was a matter of us keeping our poise. Then they missed a couple of threes in the second half that helped us out too."
The Peacocks got out to a 7-2 run early behind four points by Welton but Manhattan responded with two quick buckets to get behind 10-9. The Peacocks scored the next seven straight points behind Cavon Baker (Queens, NY / New Hope Academy [Md.] (Houston)) and Antwon Portley's (Lancaster, TX/Lancaster) two mid-range jumpers and a Nnamdi Enechionyia (Springfield, VA/St. James School (Samford)) three, extending the lead to 17-9 with 10:45 on the clock and forcing Manhattan into a timeout. The Peacocks lead would grow to 10 points at 23-13 after Welton scored on back-to-back possessions with just under nine showing. Over the final 8 minutes of the half, Manhattan outscored Saint Peter's 16-7, giving the Peacocks a 30-29 lead at intermission.
It took over three minutes for the first basket to be made in the second half, and it came by way of a three-pointer from Griffin to give the Peacocks a 33-29 lead. On the ensuing possession, Welton drew a foul and banked in the layup to complete the three-point play and give the Peacocks a 36-29 lead, then Griffin followed with another three-pointer to get the lead back to double figures at 39-29. The Peacocks added a couple more baskets to make it a 13-0 run to open the half and held a 43-29 lead. The Peacocks held Manhattan scoreless for over the first six minutes forcing them to go 0-9 from the field and 0-2 from three. After the Jaspers ended their scoring drought, cutting the Saint Peter's lead to eight points (43-35), the Peacocks outscored the Jaspers 9-1 to get the lead to 52-36 with seven minutes to play. By the 4:05 mark, Welton added four more points and grabbed three rebounds (two offensive) to give him his double-double and help extend the Peacocks lead to 59-45. In the final minutes, the Peacocks continued their dominance over the Jaspers outscoring them 10-5 to win the game 69-50. The Peacocks outscored the Jaspers 39-21 in the second half. Saint Peter's held Manhattan to 17.9 percent shooting from the field in the second half on just five made field goals (5-28).
Saint Peter's shot 29-52 (55.8%) from the floor and outscored Manhattan 34-6 in the paint. Manhattan never led in the game, as Saint Peter's held the advantage for over 38 minutes in the win. The 10 conference wins for Dunne marks the fourth time in his career that he has recorded double figure league wins (2009-10, 2010-11, 2015-16).
The Peacocks return home for a Valentines Day game against Marist on Tuesday, February 14 at 7:30p.m.
