RINDGE, N.H.- Caldwell University men's basketball senior Anthony Cooper (Ashburn, Va.) tied a career-high with 31 points as the Cougars second half comeback fell short in an 83-78 loss to Franklin Pierce University.
 
The Cougars fall to 3-2 overall, while the Ravens improve to 3-3.
 
Franklin Pierce build a 25-point lead at 46-21 late in the first half but the Cougars closed the gap to 48-27 at halftime.
 
The Ravens led by as much as 20 points in the second half at 57-37 with 14:57 left in the game. Caldwell used two scoring bursts to close to within one point late in the game. The first run was a 12-3 run scoring spree led by 10 points from sophomore Daniel Dade Jr. (Springfield, Mass.) to trim the score to 60-49 at the 11:08 mark.
 
Franklin Pierce pushed their lead back to 15 points at 64-49 midway through the half. The Cougars rallied once again, using an 18-4 run to close the gap to one point. Dade Jr. and Cooper each drained three-points in the run. Sophomore Ty-Shon Pannell (Central Islip, N.Y.) connected on two three-pointers, totaling eight points in the run, to help the Cougars cut the score to 68-67 with 7:10 left in the game.
 
The Ravens pushed their back to eight points but Caldwell found one final run as a Cooper free throw cut the score to 81-78 in the waning seconds of the game. Following a Raven missed free throw, Pannell's three-point attempt in the final seconds missed the mark as the Cougars come back fell short.
 
Cooper's career-tying 31 points led the way for the Cougars as he shot 12-for-22 from the field, 2-for-3 from downtown and 5-for-7 from the free throw line. Dade Jr. totaled 17 points and nine boards, while Pannell added 10 points. Freshman Mark Heber (Paterson, N.J.) grabbed a team-best 10 rebounds.
 
The Cougars start conference play on Wednesday, December 1 as they host Dominican College in their Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opener at 7:30 pm at the George R. Newman Center.