The New Hampshire

Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Gregory Greene Tyrese Gibbs led the Wildcats with 22 points.

The New Hampshire Wildcats continued their winning ways as they capped off a tremendous week picking up their third straight win as they defeated the Stony Brook Seawolves 69-56 Sunday afternoon at Lundholm Gymnasium.

"It's a great win for us," said Head Coach Bill Herrion. "We knew coming into this game that we had two absolute wars with them last year, two grind-out games. We knew what we were in for."

After scoring just 23 points in the first half and shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor, the Wildcats let loose in the second half torching the Seawolves for 46 points on 63 percent shooting.

Led by impressive efforts from sophomore Tyrece Gibbs and senior Jermaine Anderson the Wildcats outscored the Seawolves 46-33 in the second half as the two combined for 28 points.

That second half lead was secured with a pair of Anderson free throws with just 1:32 left giving the Wildcats a 17-point advantage, a lead in which they never looked back from.

"The second half was tremendous," said Herrion. "These kids are playing with a lot of confidence."

Gibbs led the Wildcats in scoring with 22 points, while Anderson finished second on the team with 14.

However, it wasn't just the Wildcat offense that was firing on all cylinders on Sunday; the defense forced the Stony Brook offense into 13 turnovers and just 31 percent shooting from the field.

"I thought our defense, particularly in the second half was terrific," said Herrion. "These kids deserve a lot of credit."

Leading that defensive charge was senior Blagoj Janev as he was able to give the Wildcats a lift on the defensive end with three blocks and eight rebounds. And even though he struggled offensively scoring just nine points on 3-for-12 shooting, he was able to give the Wildcats a strong post presence for much of the game.

The Wildcats also had impressive performances from freshmen Sam Herrick and Dan McGeary as they combined for 15 points off the bench for the Wildcats. The two also provided some post presence snagging nine rebounds.

The win is the Wildcats fourth in their last five games, giving them possession of fourth place in the America East.

Much of the team's success can be attributed to the surprising play of Gibbs who has filled the scoring void left by the injured Mike Christensen nicely, averaging 14.2 points per game over the stretch.

"Tyrece Gibbs has obviously been terrific since Mike Christensen went down," said Herrion. "We talked about other guys stepping up offensively and obviously he has. He's playing great basketball for us right now."

The recent success has been a far cry of what the team went through in the beginning of the year losing eight of their first nine games of the season.

But Herrion believes that all that early misfortune is now paying off.

"The first month of this season was as difficult as any first month I've been involved with in 16 years as a head coach. We had to do some soul searching and some figuring out what to do," said Herrion. "But I like where we're at right now and I like the way these kids are playing."

The Wildcats return to action this Thursday as they travel to play UMBC. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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