Matt Banton tallied a career-high 30 points on a 8-of-17 (47.1%) three-point shooting performance as the Franklin Pierce University men’s basketball team dropped their third straight game, 86-82 to Northeast-10 Conference opponent Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday afternoon in the Moore Fieldhouse.
The win snapped the Owl’s two game winning streak and moved them to 13-6, 9-3 NE10 and the loss dropped FPU to 10-8, 7-5 NE10. Before tip-off the Ravens were second in the Northeast Division of the NE10 with a 7-4 conference record. With the loss, FPU dropped to third place at 7-5 and Southern New Hampshire (9-3) and Merrimack (8-5) are ahead of the Ravens. Pierce lost to SNHU and defeated Merrimack in their meetings early on in the season.
Junior forward Mike McDevitt recorded his first double-double of the season with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Jordan Lackey scored 16 points to go along with nine rebounds. Team captain Donte Gittens chipped in six points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and a block. Oladoyin Fadojutimi chipped in 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals off the bench.
The Ravens return to Rindge on Wednesday for an NE10 showdown against Pace at 7:30 p.m.