STANDISH, Maine – The Norwich University men's basketball team fell to Saint Joseph's College of Maine in overtime, 66-62, on the road Saturday afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play.

With the loss, the Cadets are now 6-17 on the year and 3-13 in league play, while Saint Joseph's College of Maine improves to 8-15 overall and 5-11 in the GNAC.

Sophomore forward Mike Hogervorst (Leiden, Netherlands) scored a team-high 17 points for Norwich, while classmate Zygimantas Sirvydas (Silale, Lithuania) added 14 points with seven assists in the loss. Sophomore Ryan Fitzgerald (Winchester, Mass.) contributed 12 points, while classmate Ryan Booth (Northfield, Vt.) pulled down a team-best 12 rebounds for the Cadets.

Saint Joseph's College of Maine was led by sophomore Quinn Richardson-Newton (Saco, Maine) with 18 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Darian Berry (Rochester, N.H.) added 15 points off the bench, while senior Craig Luschenat (Boston, Mass.) contributed 12 points for the Monks.

Norwich jumped out to an 11-0 run in just four minutes at the start of the game. The Monks would slowly find their way back into contention, cutting the deficit to a nine-point game at the 5:14 mark, 29-20, before the Cadets nailed a three from senior Jimmy Warden (North Andover, Mass.) to make it 32-20. Saint Joseph's College of Maine would close out the half with a pair of baskets to trail by eight, 32-24.

The second half saw the momentum shifted in favor of Saint Joseph's College of Maine as the Monks put together a 17-10 run in the first nine minutes of the stanza, before freshman Ian Mileikis (Auburn, Maine) made the basket to give the Monks' their first lead of the game, 43-42, with 9:57 remaining in the game.

Both teams traded and tied up the contest numerous times as time begun run out. With 1:40 remaining and the scored knotted at 55 each, Zygimantas would found Booth open for the three-pointer to give Norwich the 58-55 lead.

The Monks would tie it up again as Richardson-Newton drove the ball inside before passing it out to Mileikis, who drilled in the shot from the deep end to even up the score at 58. Both teams had at least two opportunities to score the game-winning basket but neither team could muster the effort as time expired , forcing the game into overtime.

Richardson-Newton would open the extra period with a layup to give Saint Joseph's College of Maine the two-point lead, which didn't last long as Hogervorst nailed both shots from the free throw line to knot the contest at 60.

The Monks would make it a three-point lead after Luschenat nailed a shot from downtown  before a Hogervorst's layup trimmed the margin to just one point. Both teams struggled to find the basket as time winded down as the Monks closed out the contest with a four-point lead on a pair of Mileikis' free throws and Richardson-Newton making one-of-two from the stripe for the final score, 66-64, as Saint Joseph's College of Maine swept the series over Norwich on the year.

Norwich outshot Saint Joseph's College of Maine, hitting 46.2 percent (24-52) from the floor to the Monks' 34.3 percent (24-70), even from the three point range with the Cadets hitting 7-of-18 (38.9 percent) and the Monks making 9-of-29 (31 percent). The deciding factor in points came down to the free throw line with Saint Joseph's College of Maine making 9-of-12 (75 percent) to Norwich's 7-of-10 (70 percent).

Norwich will return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at home, hosting Johnson & Wales for the 7:00 p.m. league contest before closing out the regular season on the road at Rivier University for the 1:00 p.m. contest.