Red Flash Men’s Basketball Team Wins Third Straight Over Lock Haven
LORETTO, Pa. (Dec. 15, 2007) – The Saint Francis men’s basketball team wrapped up final exams week by winning its third straight game, and first at home this season, over a scrappy Lock Haven squad, 77-64, on Saturday night at DeGol Arena.
Redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) led the offensive charge for the Red Flash with 15 points to go with 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in 23 minutes, while redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) added 11 points, 3 assists and 2 steals. Sophomore Randy Spaid (Portage, Pa. / Portage) came off the bench and contributed career highs in points (6), rebounds (3) and minutes played (11).
Billy Arre and Denny Mortimer had 18 and 17 points, respectively, for the Bald Eagles.
Saint Francis matched last year’s longest winning streak (3) to improve to 3-6 on the season. The Red Flash will shoot for their fourth straight win when Iona comes to town for a 7 p.m. tip on Wednesday night, at DeGol Arena.
“We had final exams this week, and it always makes for a difficult time to get ready for a game with limited practice time,” said Saint Francis head coach Bobby Jones. “I certainly give Lock Haven credit for playing a very good game. We didn’t play our best basketball in the first half, but I thought that our energy in the second half was much better. We got some contributions from our bench, and it’s nice to get a win in our building.”
The Bald Eagles, who shot 53.3 percent for the game, came out firing to take a quick 4-0 lead. They made their first four field goal attempts of the game for an 8-5 lead with just under four minutes gone. It wasn’t until Nelson hit a 3-pointer with 13:30 to go in the first half that Saint Francis gained its first lead of the game, 12-9. The Red Flash built their lead to as many as 10 points in the first half, and never relinquished their lead once they got it. They took a 38-31 lead into halftime, but Lock Haven kept chipping away at the double-digit lead and eventually pulled to within 40-38 with 17:21 remaining in the game.
However, junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) completed a traditional 3-point play, Sweetney made a layup and sophomore Chris McFarland (Temple Hills, Md. / Riverdale Baptist) added another layup during a 7-0 Saint Francis run that opened its lead to 47-38 with 15:39 to play. Arre stopped the bleeding with his own layup to temporarily cut the lead to seven points, but junior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) made a 3-pointer and Sweetney drove the lane for another basketball to make it 52-40 with 13:35 remaining.
The Bald Eagles again chipped away to pull within eight points at 54-46 on an Arre 3-pointer with 11:33 to go, but the Red Flash went on another 11-2 run capped off by a pair of monster dunks by redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) to give them their biggest lead of the night at 65-48 with 6:31 remaining.
Jones substituted liberally throughout the game and got all 13 players on the roster some playing time for the first time this season.
Ford had 9 points and tied a season high with 6 assists, junior Steve Profeta (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) had 6 points, and junior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) and McFarland had 5 points each. All four players came off the bench as Saint Francis scored 33 bench points.
The Red Flash had season highs in field goals made (29) and assists (18). McFarland had a career high 5 points and 4 rebounds. Berry had 9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block, and tied a career high with 3 assists, and Dieng had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 1 block.