Mistakes Costly In Red Flash Hoops Loss Versus Lehigh
LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 17, 2007) – Marquis Hall’s 3-pointer with just over one minute remaining gave Lehigh the cushion it needed to spoil Saint Francis University’s Hall of Fame induction night with a 71-66 victory over the Red Flash men’s basketball team on Saturday night at DeGol Arena.
After Saint Francis pulled even at 62-62 on a Cale Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring), the Red Flash forced a turnover and had the ball with under two minutes to play. But they missed a jumper as Hall came down the rebound. Junior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Bolingbrook) nearly forced a turnover on the outlet pass, but he was forced out of bounds to give the ball back to the Mountain Hawks. Hall then hit a 3-pointer over a stiff SFU defense to give Lehigh the 65-62 lead.
The Mountain Hawks made 6-of-8 free throws in the final 35 seconds to seal the win at 71-66. They improved to 2-1 with the win, while the Red Flash fell to 0-4.
After playing four games in a week, Saint Francis will now have a break until its 2 p.m. contest at La Salle next Saturday afternoon.
Junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) came off the bench for the first time in his Red Flash career, and drained a game-high 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He also pulled down four rebounds. Nelson contributed 21 points, one shy of his career high, and added 3 assists.
Hall made 7-of-13 field goal attempts for 21 points and 3 steals for Lehigh, while freshman Rob Keefer added 12 points and 6 rebounds, and Bryan White had 8 points, 13 rebounds and 4 steals.
“The season is one week old, we played four games in seven nights,” said Saint Francis head coach Bobby Jones. “We lost three games at home early, which is disturbing for the basketball team and the coaching staff. It’s not time to push the panic button, but we need to find a way to not let these things happen to us. We had a lot of little mistakes that really hurt us.”
After shooting 44-of-55 from the charity stripe in the first four games, the Red Flash struggled at the line on Saturday night, making just 15-of-25 (60.0 percent) from the line. The Mountain Hawks held a distinct advantage on the boards 34-23.
The game featured six ties and nine lead changes. Saint Francis held the lead for much of the early part of the game beginning with Nelson’s 3-pointer to open the scoring. That lead would build to five points at 11-6 with 14:34 remaining in the first half. But Lehigh answered with an 8-3 run to tie it at 14-14 before scoring the next two buckets to make it an 18-14 Mountain Hawks lead with 10:35 to go in the first half. That lead expanded to six on White’s jumper with one minute to go to make it a 34-28 Lehigh game heading in to the break.
The Mountain Hawks led by as many as seven points over the first eight minutes of the second half, but the Red Flash kept chipping away. A 41-35 Lehigh edge evaporated on an 11-2 Saint Francis run that gave the Red Flash a 46-43 lead with 11:31 remaining. But the team’s traded points most of the way down the stretch until Hall’s 3-pointer with 1:04 remaining. SFU was forced into fouling, and the Mountain Hawks took advantage by sinking their opportunities to seal the victory.
“This was a hard fought victory for us,” said first-year Lehigh coach Brett Reed. “Saint Francis is right on the cusp of being very successful. Their forwards could drive us and spread us out. They had some foul trouble which set them back some. The contribution that they got from Nelson was great. He was hard to cover, and Chris Berry was also hard to cover. He was up against one of our best defenders and still managed 22 points. We had some big plays that allowed us to pull this one off. We had a lot of respect for Devin Sweetney, which created a match-up problem for us.”
Notes: Saint Francis inducted six individuals and two teams into its Athletics Hall of Fame prior to the game. Junior Kyle Jackson earned his first career start in the game. Sophomore Kurt Hoffman started for the second time in his young career.