Tag: SNHU

SNHU ends game on a 17-0 run, punches ticket to Elite 8

Third-seeded SNHU closed the game on a 17-0 run to shock top-seeded Saint Michael’s and win the NCAA Division II East Region Championship on Tuesday night in Colchester, Vt. The Penmen punch their ticket to the Elite 8 for the 8th time in school history and the first time since 2014-15.

The Penmen trailed 61-56 with 6:41 to play, but held the host Purple Knights scoreless the rest of the way to earn the come-from-behind victory and cut down the nets.

The eight remaining teams have been re-seeded for the D-II Elite 8 and SNHU has garnered the No. 7 seed and will take on No. 2 Nova Southeastern on Tuesday, March 26 at 3:30 pm in Evansville, Ind.

Check out the full NCAA Division II bracket.

📸 Courtesy: @TheNortheast10

SNHU captures NE10 crown,earns automatic NCAA bid

MANCHESTER – For just the third time in program history, Southern New Hampshire has been crowned Northeast-10 Conference champions as the No. 5 Penmen defeated No. 6 Southern Connecticut State, 75-60, on Saturday afternoon at the Stan Spirou Field House.

With the win, SNHU earns the league’s automatic bid to the Division II NCAA tournament. The Penmen will learn their seed and match-up at the NCAA Selection Show on Sunday at 11:00 pm.

SNHU used a 15-4 run in the first half and 15-4 run to start the second half to propel the Penmen to the victory.

Preston Santos paced the Penmen with 20 points, while Kurtis Henderson (16), Matt Becht (15) and Derrick Grant Jr. (13) also netted double-digits.

Becht was named the 2024 NE10 Championship Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the NE10 All-Championship Team by Santos.

Check out the full photo gallery by Cindy Lavigne of Lavigne’s Live Shots…

SNHU completes season sweep of St. Anselm

Southern New Hampshire used an 11-2 run to start the 4th quarter to get separation from visiting St. Anselm and earn a 66-55 victory on Wednesday night in Manchester. The Penmen complete the season sweep over their Queen City rival with the win.

Jess Knight led SNHU with 24 points and 13 boards, while Adriana Timberlake and Meghan Gordon added 15 and 12, respectively. The Hawks were paced by 14 points from Melanie Hoyt and 12 from Alex Quirolo.

With the win, the Penmen improve to 11-5 (9-3 NE10), while St. Anselm falls to 11-5 (9-3 NE10). The Hawks leads the all-time series against SNHU 52-25, but the Penmen have won six of the last seven and four straight.

Check out the full photo gallery by Dave Beliveau…

SNHU downs St. Anselm with largest win in series history

Trailing by nine halfway through the first half, Southern New Hampshire reeled off a 27-3 run, including 21 straight, to pull away and never look back versus visiting St. Anselm, 82-52, on Wednesday night in Manchester. The 30-point margin of victory is the largest ever in the storied Queen City rivalry between the two.

The Penmen were led by 21 points from Matt Becht, while Derrick Grant added 10 points and 14 rebounds. Noah Kamba (12) and Preston Santos (11) both notched double digits for SNHU as well.

Matt Becker paced the Hawks with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while sharp shooter Josh Morissette managed 10 points but was 0-7 from beyond the arc.

With the win, SNHU improves to 11-5 (7-4 NE10) on the season. St. Anselm falls to 8-10 (6-6 NE10). Saint Anselm leads the all-time series with SNHU, 41-37, having won 10 of the last 13 meetings, including nine of 10, but the Penmen have now captured three of the last four.

Check out the full photo gallery of the action by Dave Beliveau…

Pinkos steers SNHU in the right direction

By Mike Whaley

If you were to pick someone who epitomizes basketball in New Hampshire at its finest, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example than Karen Pinkos. She ticks all the boxes. After all, she grew up in Allenstown, went to high school and played three sports at Pembroke Academy, and then walked on as a basketball player at the University of New Hampshire, becoming a two-time captain and an all-conference performer.

A long-time college hoop coach with 30-plus years of experience, Pinkos is beginning her 18th season as the head women’s coach at Southern New Hampshire University. There she has turned SNHU into a winning program having inherited a team that had accumulated 14 consecutive losing seasons when she arrived.

Pinkos worked through three more losing seasons before turning things slowly around. The Penwomen have had five consecutive winning seasons, including the last two in which they went 21-7 and 22-8 to qualify for the NCAA Division II Tournament – the program’s first appearances since 1990.

“I love it here,” said Pinkos, who graduated from Pembroke in 1984 and UNH in 1988. “It’s been a good fit. My family is relatively close to here. It’s home for me. Growing up 10 to 15 minutes away, it’s a cool story. I hope we can continue to be competitive.”

Indeed, when recalling her basketball roots in the state, Pinkos harkens back to Allenstown in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A rock for her was legendary Pembroke hoop coach Rose Galligan. “It was awesome. She was tough,” Pinkos said. “She would do anything for me. She gave me so much opportunity as a kid growing up.”

When Pinkos’ parents divorced, Galligan stepped in to help get the young basketball player rides or help fundraise money to go to camps. “She was just awesome,” Pinkos said. “She’s still in my life. She comes to our games, she comes to our practices.”

Pinkos recalls as a young player that Galligan just wanted her to get better. “I spent time in the gym with her – after practice, before practice,” Pinkos said. “Sundays, she’d open the gym for us – me and my teammates. She was strict, but to me very motivating. She gave me structure that I probably needed.”

Pinkos also played softball and field hockey. UNH came on her radar through their basketball camp that she attended. “I just fell in love with the place,” she said. “I loved the coaches. I loved the players. I wanted to go there, but it was completely out of reach. I was not a Division I athlete or player.”

Pinkos had some smaller schools on her radar, but then decided she didn’t care. “If I can make it as a walk-on, I’ll go there and that’s how it happened,” she said, enrolling at UNH and walking on to the basketball team. She made the team, but didn’t play much – maybe a total of six minutes in six games. It was one of those deals where she’d get a minute here, 10 seconds there. The coach might ask someone to go in at the end of the game for the star player. “Yeah, I’ll go in,” Pinkos recalled saying.

She worked her butt off after that first year. A player got injured during her sophomore year, so she was able to slide into the starting lineup. She never left. She went on to be a two-time captain and made the all-conference first team as a senior.

After college, Pinkos wasn’t sure what she was going to do. She had a summer job in Newmarket directing a summer recreation program. Part of her still wanted to play. She had some friends that were playing overseas, so it was in the back of her mind. By this time it’s August and her options are less than they were. Then one of her UNH assistant coaches approached her and said she was changing careers to be a teacher. Was Pinkos interested in the position?

She was.

Pinkos talked to coach Kathy Sanborn and took the position. “My friends were my teammates,” she remembered. “So for me to be a young assistant coach on staff with people I played with was a little odd.” It was not an issue for Pinkos. She figured since she’d been a two-time captain, she was a leader anyway. She was at UNH for three more seasons as an assistant.

Then she left to play professionally in Germany, something she did for a half a season. She came back and pieced together different jobs to make ends meet – intramural official, substitute teacher. Then she got an assistant job at Boston College, and she was in the coaching game for good. Next she was at Providence College, and then in 1996 she accepted a job as an assistant at Northeastern University, where she stayed for nine years leading up to the SNHU post.

In between she interviewed for quite a few head coaching jobs. She got the New Haven job, but turned it down. “It wasn’t the right fit at the time for me,” Pinkos said. She also applied for the UNH job, but didn’t get it. “It was good for me because I probably wasn’t ready.”

She was also up for jobs at Saint Anselm College and St. Michael’s College, and didn’t get either. “When this job (SNHU) opened up, it felt like it was home because I had grown up in New Hampshire,” Pinkos said.

She met with then athletic director Chip Polak. She had a lot of people call on her behalf. “It became a perfect fit,” she said. “Who knew 18 years later I’d still be here.”

There was certainly work to be done. Not only had there been 14 straight losing seasons, but in the previous 13 the Penmen had never won more than eight games. The culture was not great. “The biggest thing looking back was trying to create a culture,” Pinkos said. “I had to do a lot of convincing to these kids that this is a new way of doing things and that basketball needed to be a priority and not your social life. Even in my first year there were everyday victories.

One of those victories was a nine-win season in 2005-06, four more than the previous season and the most by a SNHU team since the 1991-92 season. “We beat some big teams that first year,” she said. “We did some nice things. The kids kind of got on board. Two seasons later they won double figure games (13) and in 2008-09 they went 18-11, the first winning season in 17 years.

“We got better and better,” Pinkos said. “We did have a couple down years in the middle for whatever reasons. It’s a tough league. The last seven, eight years we’ve been able to have a pretty good program.” SNHU has had six winning seasons in the last seven years. There was no season in 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The kids have bought in,” Pinkos said. “It’s not a lot easier, but people will listen now when you call. Because kids want to go to a winning program and it’s a great university.”

One of the big turning points that has propelled the Penmen into a consistent winning program was recruiting Kylie Lorenzen in 2015. She went on to become the program’s leading scorer (1,798 points) and rebounder (932), leading SNHU to three winning seasons in four years.

Pinkos has taken a lot away from the different coaches she has worked with. Bob Foley at Providence gave her insight into Xs and Os, but mostly she learned about recruiting and competitiveness. “Recruiting has a lot to do with it,” she said. “Each year you get better players. The list is so long of really talented players we got here in the program.”

Which is why it has been important to Pinkos to hammer home from day one of building that culture of doing the right thing, being good teammates and good people, and working hard. “And committing to the program and being really selfless,” she said. “Over time that culture is not something I have to teach. It’s now taught by the older players. That was my goal.”

That culture has gotten SNHU to where it is now. The current team is 4-2 and 4-1 in the competitive Northeast-10 Conference, coming off back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.

“The last two years have been unbelievable,” Pinkos said. “These kids are hungry to win.” The two years are particularly striking as they came off the covid year in which there was no season. It was extra tough for SNHU as they were one of the few schools that shut down. Pinkos couldn’t even work out with her players. In fact, she said she went nearly a year and a half without seeing them in person. “We tried to maintain communication with a text, email, a zoom call,” she said. “I went for a walk with a couple kids – just being outdoors.”

The Penmen came back with a vengeance with 2021-22. They went 21-7 to make the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance in over 30 years. “I think it was just missing it, putting some pieces together recruiting,” Pinkos said. “We had Meg Knollmeyer as a transfer. We just had some kids who were hungry.”

When the team returned, Pinkos said the Penmen “learned to appreciate each other and the opportunities that each one of us had and not to take it for granted. It just clicked.”

There were still challenges. Covid had not gone away, and still hasn’t. There were practices with just four players due to covid. They had to reschedule five games because of covid. SNHU played seven games in a 14-day span. “Which I think took a toll on our kids,” Pinkos said. “Two kids ended up getting injured in the same game – tore their ACLs. We still managed to finish the season. It was heartbreaking for our players, to this day for Meg Knollmeyer and Gyanna Russell. It was heartbreaking for them to end their careers on torn ACLs after a year of covid. Those are moments you hate as a coach. But it was also the most rewarding year because those two helped put Southern New Hampshire on the map.”

SNHU won the NE-10 regular-season championship and hosted the NCAA Division II East Region Championship, losing to Daemen College, 70-59.

“We did it again. We pushed through last year,” Pinkos said. “We had some pretty good wins. We were able to just take care of business.” SNHU went 22-8 overall, making the NCAA East region Championship at Assumption University in Worcester, Mass. They won the program’s first-ever NCAA tourney game with a 65-44 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas before falling in the semis to Jefferson University, 62-49.

“We’ve got a big, talented team this year,” Pinkos said. “We had a tough loss the other day ( to Post, 57-51). Those things happen. I hope we can get back there. But nothing in life is guaranteed.” SNHU lost its second game to nationally-ranked Bentley on Wednesday, 59-52.

The Post loss was humbling, according to Pinkos. “You’ve got to work for everything. Nothing is easy,” she said. “We didn’t shoot well. We didn’t play our best. We hope to get back there. That’s our goal.”

SNHU should have a good shot of doing just that with some very good veteran players returning to the roster, led by Adrianna Timberlake and Jess Knight, both mainstays on the last two NCAA tournament teams.

“I feel like if we do the things we’re supposed to do, winning will take care of itself,” Pinkos added. It’s proven, so far, to be a successful recipe for SNHU.

Saint Anselm downs SNHU in Queen City clash

The Queen City rivalry was renewed as the Saint Anselm College men erased a 16-point first-half deficit to come back and earn a hard fought 79-67 road victory over Southern New Hampshire at a packed Stan Spirou Field House in Manchester on Wednesday night.

SNHU came out the gates firing and used a 14-2 run to open up an 18-6 lead just 3:30 into the ball game. Matt Becht connected on three-straight triples to pace the Penmen during that run. 

The Hawks cut the SNHU led to eight before Becht buried another one from deep to spur an 8-0 run for the Penmen and give them their biggest lead of the night, 33-17 with 7:56 left in the half. 

Saint Anselm came out of the locker room energized and opened the second frame on a 5-0 run. SNHU then struggled to make a field goal as the Penmen shot just 25.8% (8-31) from the floor in the second half.

The Hawks capitalized as they unleashed a 22-6 spurt later in the half to take a 10-point lead with just under six minutes on the clock. The Penmen then used a 6-0 run of their own to cut the lead to four with 4:28 left, but the Hawks closed things out to come away with the 12-point win.

Tyler Arbuckle led Saint Anselm with a game-high 24 points, while fellow Hawks Owen McGlashan (18) and Miles Tention (15) also netted double figures. SNHU was paced by a quartet of double-digit scorers: Matt Becht (17), Sam Kodi (15), Ethan Okwuosa (11) and Evan Guillory (10).

With the win, Saint Anselm improves to 13-4 (9-2 NE10) on the season, while SNHU had its six-game win streak snapped and falls to 10-7 (7-4 NE10).

The Hawks now led the all-time series over the Penmen, 40-36, and have won nine of the last 11 meetings, including seven of eight. Saint Anselm has also been victorious in five of the last six meets at SNHU, dating back to the 2017 NE10 Championship title game March 4, 2017.

Check out full highlights of the action by our Tim Lee…