MANCHESTER, N.H. – The American International College men's basketball team trailed by as many as 20 four minutes into the second half and nearly pulled off the miracle comeback, but could not get the potential game-winning basket in the closing seconds as host Saint Anselm College held on for a wild 66-65 win Saturday afternoon at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.

The Hawks, who are receiving votes in the latest NABC Coaches' Poll, improved to 11-2 overall and 7-2 in the Northeast-10. The Yellow Jackets fell to 5-8 overall and 2-7 in conference play.

Saint Anselm never trailed in the game, opening the contest with a 13-3 run and then used a 10-0 surge to take what appeared be a commanding 31-11 lead with 8:25 to go in the first half. The Hawks took a 45-27 lead into the locker room at the break and held a 51-31 advantage following junior forward Dominic Borelli's (Westbrook, Maine) jumper 4:03 into the second half.

This one was far from over though as AIC outscored Saint Anselm 28-8 over the next 11:18 to tie the game at 59-all with 4:39 remaining in the contest.

The Hawks found themselves back up by five following a pair of made free throws from junior guard Dino Mallios (Winthrop, Mass.) with just 37 seconds to go before senior guard Ricky Hudson (Sewell, N.J.) hit a jumper just six seconds later to make the score 66-63 in favor of Saint Anselm. Junior guard Spencer Braithwaite (Dorchester, Mass.) then stole the ball from freshman forward Mike McCahey (Clarkstown, N.Y.) on the inbound attempt and made his second attempt at a layup to pull AIC within one, 66-65 with 26 seconds to go.

The two teams then traded timeouts before McCahey turned the ball over again, this time with the steal going to sophomore guard Al-Shabazz Jabateh (East Orange, N.J.) with 24 seconds to go. The Yellow Jackets immediately called timeout to draw up the game-winning play, but three straight layup attempts would not fall and the Hawks held on for the victory.

Sophomore guard Roy Mabrey (Belmar, N.J.) scored 15 points with six rebounds, six assists and two steals to lead Saint Anselm, while sophomore forward Chris Santo (Cherry Hill, N.J.) added 14 points with five boards. McCahey finished with 13 points and six rebounds.

Junior guard Janek Schmidkunz (Berlin, Germany scored a game-high 20 points for AIC, going 7-for-9 from the field and 6-for-6 from downtown. Braithwaite finished with 18 points and five assists, while Hudson finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals.

The Yellow Jackets shot just 36.7 percent (11-30) from the field in the first half, but turned it around in the second as they went 13-for-26 in the second. The exact opposite was the case for the Hawks, who shot an incredible 61.3 percent (19-31) in the first half before shooting just 34.8 percent (8-23) in the second.

AIC will next travel to Bentley University Tuesday for a 7:30 p.m. Northeast-10 contest.