Red Flash Men’s Basketball Wins Exhibition Opener Against Juniata
LORETTO, Pa. (Oct. 31, 2007) – After a slow start, the Saint Francis men’s basketball team turned up the defensive pressure to hand Juniata College a 65-46 defeat in both teams’ exhibition openers on Wednesday night at DeGol Arena.
Redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) led all scorers with 16 points, and added 5 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting. Redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) was also 7-of-11 from the field in scoring 15 points. He also pitched in 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) had 13 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal.
The Red Flash will wrap up their exhibition schedule when they play host to Penn State-Altoona at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, at DeGol Arena. General admission tickets for the game are just $3 each. That game can be heard live on The EDGE 1400 AM, and a link to listen will be available at www.goRedFlash.com.
The Eagles jumped out to an early 16-7 lead with six second-chance points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. However, Saint Francis held them to just 12-of-43 shooting over the final 33 minutes, 38 seconds of the contest.
“This is why we play the exhibition games,” said Saint Francis head coach Bobby Jones. “We got off to a shaky start, but the guys buckled down on the defensive side and they got the job done in the end. We’ve got to continue playing good defensive basketball. We’ll work on some things between now and Saturday, and hopefully we will show some improvement against Penn State-Altoona.”
The Red Flash used their size advantage to win a 41-32 rebounding edge. Five SFU players had four or more boards in the game. But Saint Francis did struggle from outside the arc in making just 5-of-21 three-point attempts.
After trailing 16-7 with 13:38 to play in the first half, the Red Flash used a 16-7 run of its own to pull even at 23-23. Six different players contributed to the run, led by Dieng with four points. Kyle Opitz gave Juniata a brief 25-23 lead with a layup, but Nelson answered with a bucket to tie it and Saint Francis never trailed again. The Red Flash led 31-25 going into the break.
SFU built its lead to 12 points at 42-30 just 4:33 into the second half. It would lead by as many as 16 points on several occasions until freshman Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Gothenburg, Sweden / Solebury Prep) hit a 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.
Eric Mueseler led the Eagles with 10 points and led all players with 7 rebounds to go with 2 assists and 2 steals. Brian Cannon scored 8 points and had 6 rebounds, and Kyle Opitz contributed 7 points, 4 steals and 3 rebounds.
Junior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) and Orandi had 6 points each for the Red Flash. Local product Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, Pa. / Greater Johnstown) had 3 points and 6 rebounds.