Men's Basketball Knocked Out of GNAC Postseason With 74-73 Loss at Saint Joseph's (ME)

STANDISH, Maine – With the final possession of their season, a buzzer-beating attempt by the Saints hit off the front rim and bounced out as the buzzer rang, resulting in the Emmanuel men's basketball season ending following a 74-73 loss at Saint Joseph's College of Maine on Tuesday night in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Quarterfinal round.

The No. 6 seeded Saints nearly pulled off the second upset of the night in the GNAC Postseason at the No. 3 seeded Monks, but the loss instead goes down as Emmanuel's only one-point defeat of the 2023-24 campaign.

With 19.6 seconds remaining and trailing by three, Saints first-year Cameron Snowden (Franklin Park, N.J.) found himself at the foul line for two shots. The rookie forward knocked down the pair confidently, cutting the Saint Joseph's lead to one.

On the ensuing inbound, the Saints full-court pressure was relentless as Emmanuel opted not to foul immediately. The Saints high pressure nearly caused a turnover two other times before the intensity finally paid off, causing a turnover as senior Donte Pope (Middletown, Conn.) deflected a pass at midcourt with 14.6 seconds remaining, eventually getting into the hands of sophomore Zaire Baines (Queens, N.Y.) in the frontcourt with 8.3 seconds to go.

Baines drove right, before cutting back inside to the right elbow and kicking out the final pass of the night to sophomore Ismani Cepeda (Roslindale, Mass.) at the top of the three-point arc. Cepeda squared up a good look and fired from 24 feet. His shot was on line but came up inches short, hitting the front rim as time expired, as the Monks escaped with a 74-73 win.

The Saints battled back for a chance to win in the final two minutes, trailing by eight with 2:10 remaining. A Cepeda three-pointer at 1:55, followed by a layup by Snowden with 1:02 remaining, got the Saints back within one possession at 74-71.

Emmanuel's never-give-up style battled far before the final two minutes as the Saints trailed by as many as a dozen after a 10-3 run in the middle of the second half by the Monks put Saint Joseph's ahead 54-42 with 11:24 in the game.

The response being down 12 came almost immediately with four points from Pope, three from Cepeda, and two from Snowden, helping spring a 9-0 run in a 2:36 span, cutting the deficit to 54-51.

The scoring was remarkably similar between the Saints and Monks with eight players total scoring in double figures, four each from Emmanuel and Saint Joseph's.

Monks sophomore John Paul Frazier (York, Maine) scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting in 31 minutes. First-year Remijo Wani (Portland, Maine) added 16 points and four steals. Senior Camryn York (Auburn, Maine) and junior Julian Llopiz (Boston, Mass.) came off the bench for 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Pope led the Saints offense, scoring 19 points to go with 10 rebounds for the game's only double-double. Baines and Snowden matched one another with 15 points each while Baines logged a game-high 39 minutes. Cepeda netted 14 points on 5-for-9 from the field and 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.

The loss drops the Saints record to 12-14 as their season officially comes to a close.

Saint Joseph's College plays on in the GNAC Tournament, heading down to the No. 2 seed Albertus Magnus on Thursday night for a 7:00 p.m. game.