Red Flash Struggle With Monmouth Offense In Road Loss
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. (Feb. 28, 2008) – Monmouth shot 62.5 percent from the field and the Saint Francis men’s basketball team went almost 12 minutes without a field goal at the end of the first half and to start the second stanza in a 73-64 setback on Thursday night at Boylan Gym.
Junior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) posted a season-high 14 points to go with four rebounds and three assists for the Red Flash, while redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) had 13 points and six rebounds, junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) added 12 points and five rebounds, and redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) added 10 points and two steals.
Whitney Coleman and Yaniv Simpson paced the Hawks with 20 points each, Alex Nunner added 12 points and eight rebounds and James Hett tallied 10 points and four assists.
Saint Francis lost its fourth straight game to fall to 6-22 overall, and 4-13 in the Northeast Conference. With the loss, the Red Flash dropped into a three-way tie for eighth place in the eight-team NEC playoff race. SFU will travel to Fairleigh Dickinson for a 7 p.m. contest on Saturday night. The Red Flash need a win, and a Monmouth loss at Mount St. Mary’s, to secure an NEC playoff berth.
The Hawks came out in Saturday night’s game by making six of their first seven shots to jump out 16-8 just over six minutes into the contest. Monmouth’s Princeton-style offense created open looks for Coleman early on. Coleman scored 16 first-half points on 7-of-9 shooting. Simpson made all three of his 3-point attempts for nine points at the half.
Saint Francis shot 50.0 percent in the first stanza, but allowed the Hawks to shoot 62.5 percent. Junior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) came off the bench to tally eight points in the first 20 minutes for the Red Flash, who finished the half by not scoring a field goal for the final 2:27. Monmouth took a 37-30 lead into the break.
Saint Francis’ offensive struggles continued into the second half. Ford made a pair of free throws just 43 seconds into the half to draw SFU within 37-32. However, that’s as close as the Red Flash would get the rest of the way. The Hawks went on a 17-3 run over the next 5:30 seconds to put SFU on the ropes, 54-35, with 13:26 remaining. In fact, the Red Flash finally broke their scoring drought at 10:43 when Berry made a layup to cut the lead to 54-37 with 10:43 to go. Saint Francis picked up its defensive pressure and held the Hawks to no field goals for five minutes. The Red Flash chipped away at that lead and got to within 10 points, 61-51, with 5:15 remaining on a layup by Dieng. After Monmouth built its lead to 13 points, 67-54, with 3:41 to go, Berry completed a 3-point play and another 3-pointer by Ford made it a nine-point game, 69-60, with 2:59 to go. Saint Francis had the ball with a chance to cut the lead to as little as six with just over two minutes remaining, but Coleman came down with a big rebound on a Berry long range miss.
Monmouth made 15-of-17 attempts from the free throw line in the second half and made 16-of-19 (84.2 percent) in the game.
Freshman Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Gothenburg, Sweden / Solebury Prep) set career highs in points (seven), rebounds (three), assists (four) and minutes played (16) for the Red Flash. He made his first career 3-pointer as well.