Red Flash Men’s Basketball Team Struggles Against Morgan State
LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 14, 2007) – Morgan State shot 57.7 percent from the field in the second half to pull away from Saint Francis in a 77-53 non-conference men’s basketball victory on Wednesday night at DeGol Arena.
The Bears turned 21 Red Flash turnovers into 23 points, and committed just five turnovers in the game.
Redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) had a team-high 14 points to go with 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 assists for SFU. But it was junior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, Ill, / Palatine) and sophomore Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, Pa. / Greater Johnstown) who provided a spark off the bench with 10 points each. Hoffman’s 10 points are a career high, while his 26 minutes played tied a career high.
The Red Flash shot 40.9 percent from the field, and made 41.7 from beyond the arc, but they had no answer for Morgan State’s Marquise Kately and Jamar Smith.
Kately had a game-high 21 points on 10-of-19 shooting, while Smith had 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Jerrel Green tallied 13 points, 5 assists and 2 steals, and Reggie Holmes had 12 points, 3 steals and 2 assists off the bench.
Both teams shot well from the charity stripe as the Bears made 11-of-12 (.917) attempts, and Saint Francis drained 12-of-14 (.857).
“This was obviously not a good performance for us,” said Saint Francis head coach Bobby Jones. “I certainly thought that we would come out with a little more emotion and with some confidence after a good performance up at Penn State two nights ago. We’ve got a well needed day off tomorrow. We’ll practice hard on Friday and go after Lehigh on Saturday. Morgan State is a very athletic team, probably the most athletic team to come in this building since George Washington a few years back. They have tremendous athletes.”
The Red Flash will try again for their first victory of the season when Lehigh comes to town for a 7 p.m. tip on Saturday night at DeGol Arena. Prior to the game, Saint Francis will enshrine the Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2007. The entire class will be recognized during a halftime ceremony.
Saint Francis struggled in the first half with 15 turnovers. The Bears took advantage by scoring 16 points off turnovers in the first 20 minutes to take a 37-26 lead into the break.
Green led Morgan State with 13 points and 3 assists to go with 2 rebounds and 2 steals. He was 5-of-5 from the field.
Surprenant carried his big game at Penn State into Wednesday night’s contest by hitting his first four field goal attempts for a team-best 10 points at halftime. He made four of the Red Flash eight field goals in the first half.
After a 4-4 tie, the Bears hit their next four buckets for a 9-0 run and a 13-4 lead with 13:58 to go in the first 20 minutes. But Saint Francis responded with a 10-3 run, which was sparked by eight points from Surprenant.
However, the Red Flash couldn’t keep that momentum and Morgan State responded with a 9-0 run of its own to open the game back up to 25-14 Bears with 7:52 remaining in the first half.