Red Flash Go Cold at End of Second Half in Loss at Quinnipiac
HAMDEN, Conn. – Senior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) and junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) either tied or set career highs with 19 points each, but a long scoring drought cost the Saint Francis men’s basketball team in gutwrenching 65-58 loss on Saturday at Quinnipiac.
The Red Flash drop their sixth consecutive game to fall to 4-11 overall and 1-4 in the Northeast Conference. They will be back in action with a 7 p.m. tilt against Wagner on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.
Ford had a career high 19 points to go with five rebounds, and three assists, and Jukic tied his career high with 19 points to go with six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Senior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central) added 10 points to go with career highs with seven rebounds and four steals.
Bryan Geffen scored 19 of his career high 24 points in the second half to provide a spark for the Bobcats, who improved to 7-8 overall, and 3-2 in the NEC. James Feldeine tallied 17 points, while Justin Rutty had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
SFU responded from a tough lopsided loss on Thursday night at Sacred Heart by jumping out to an early lead. Ford led the way with seven points in the first half to give the Flash a 27-21 lead at the break.
Quinnipiac stormed back with a quick 7-2 run to start the second half, pulling back to within 29-28. However, Saint Francis then held the Bobcats without a field goal for 4:22 during a 13-0 run to take a 42-28 lead.
But that’s when the Red Flash offense went cold. Quinnipiac responded with a 17-2 run of its own, and held SFU without a bucket for 10:09, to take a 45-44 lead.
Jukic made several free throws to hang on, but Quinnipiac overtook the lead. Jukic finally broke the field goal drought with a hook shot with 3:05 remaining to cut the Bobcats lead to 54-51.
Sean Light hit a layup and Feldeine made 1-of-2 free throws to make it 57-51, and Jukic then made another layup followed by a Jackson steal and layup to cut the lead to 57-55 with 1:50 remaining.
Geffen answered with a runner to make it 59-55 with 1:21 left, and Jukic made 1-of-2 free throws with 1:10 remaining to make it 59-56. However, Geffen came back down the other end and hit a big 3-pointer to put the game out of reach at 62-56 with 53.6 seconds left.