Nashua, NH – St. Joseph's College of Maine built a 20 point halftime lead and cruised their way to victory, 78-51, in tonight's Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball action. The Monks Zach O'Brien scored a game high 20 points and three other Monks players reached double digit points en route to the win. The Monks improve to 17-7 overall and 14-3 in GNAC play while the Raiders fall to 12-12 and 7-10 in conference.

Along with O'Brien, Chris Petzy scored 19 points, Tyler Kelly had 13 and Anthony Savino added 10 for the Monks who never trailed in the game. Point guard Julio Vazquez had a team high 12 rebounds and three players tied for the team lead with 3 assists.

The Raiders were without senior center Don Poitras(Bow, NH) after a sprained ankle in the Raiders last game held him out of the action. Brother Tom Poitras (Bow, NH) led the Raiders with 11 points and 7 rebounds, and sophomore guard Cliff Celestin (Braintree, MA) added 10 points in the loss. Senior shooting guard Nick Bean (East Longmeadow, MA) continued to struggle from the 3-point line going 0 for 6 from the ark and finishing with just 2 points.

The Monks built a 46-26 halftime lead by shooting 53% from the floor and outrebounding the Raiders 19-11 including a 6-2 advantage on the offensive boards. As a team, the Raiders went 3 for 17 from the 3-point line for a dismal 17.6% and shot just 33% from the floor for the entire game.

The Raiders have one more regular season game to secure the 5th spot in the GNAC Championship Tournament and will play Lasell College on Saturday, Feb. 19th. Pending some help from losses by other teams the Raiders could back their way into the 5th seed, but can't finish any higher. The Monks will finish their season on Saturday as well against Mount Ida College and with a win could potentially secure the #1 seed for the tournament.