Red Flash Men’s Basketball Team Earns Workmanlike Victory over PSU-Altoona
LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 3, 2007) – The Saint Francis men’s basketball team scored the first 10 points and the last 12 points of the first half to earn a workmanlike 95-45 exhibition victory over Penn State-Altoona on Saturday night at DeGol Arena.
Redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) posted 8 points, 6 blocks and 4 rebounds. His 6 blocks would qualify as a single-game school record in a regular season contest.
Quintin Dziabo and Mike Dancer led the Lions with 9 points each, while Zach Spitz had 6 rebounds.
Saint Francis finished its exhibition season with a 2-0 record. It will open the regular season at 7 p.m. on Saturday night when American comes to town.
Saint Francis forced 25 turnovers, and committed just six in the game. It held a 43-2 advantage in points off turnovers, and a 50-20 edge in points in the paint.
The Red Flash came out with their pressure defense and held Penn State-Altoona without a bucket for the first 6 minutes, 9 seconds. Saint Francis, which forced four turnovers in the first 4:34 of the game, had offensive runs of 10, 8, 8, and 12 points in the first 20 minutes.
“One of the areas that we wanted to improve tonight was our energy level to start the basketball game,” said Saint Francis head coach Bobby Jones. “I do think that we improved in that area. Also, we wanted to make an emphasis with our 3-4-5 guys going to both the offensive and defensive glass. I certainly thought that the guys that played those positions tonight did a great job. It was a nice team effort. I thought everyone that played contributed. There are a lot of positives that we can take out of this game. A 23 to six assist-to-turnover ratio is something we can look at as a positive. Our focus this season is really placed on the defensive end and I thought we took a step in the right direction tonight.”
Redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) scored all 13 of his points in the first half as the Red Flash took a 53-24 lead into the locker room at the break.
Eleven of Saint Francis’ players played 10 or more minutes in the game.
Junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) had 11 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds and 3 steals for the Red Flash. Junior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central) added 11 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal in just 10 minutes of action. He made 5-of-6 field goal attempts. Junior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) pitched in with 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, and sophomore Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) had 7 points and 3 rebounds in 10 minutes.
Saint Francis will play four of its first six regular season games at home, and won’t leave the state of Pennsylvania until a Dec. 29 contest at Arizona State.