Feb. 19, 2009
Sweetney Scores 1,000th Point With Career High 35, But Red Flash Fall at Long Island
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Junior Devin Sweetney (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) became the 38th 1,000-point scorer in school history with a career-high 35 points, but Long Island had six players score in double figures in an 85-71 victory over the Saint Francis men’s basketball team on Thursday night at the Wellness Center.
The Blackbirds used a 12-2 run at the start of the first half, and a 12-3 run to begin the second half, in handing SFU its sixth straight loss. The Red Flash will be back in action 7 p.m. Saturday night when they travel to Mount St. Mary’s.
Sweetney made 12-of-17 field goal attempts, including 4-of-7 from outside the arc, in recording his first career 30-point game. His previous career high was 25, earlier this season against Duquesne. Senior Cale Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) also reached a career milestone as he passed Jack Phelan for fifth on Saint Francis’ all-time assists list. He finished with nine assists to give him 359 for his career. Junior Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, Pa. / Johnstown) tied his career high with 10 points to go with seven rebounds.
Jaytornah Wisseh had a team-high 19 points for the Blackbirds to go with six assists, while Lucas Faggiano had 13 points, Kyle Johnson added 12, Tyrone Mattison contributed 11, and David Hicks and Julian Boyd tallied 10 points each.
Long Island shot 57.4 percent from the field, while SFU shot 49.0 percent.
Saint Francis fired on 50.0 percent of its field goal attempts in the first half, but the Blackbirds jumped out 12-2 and shot a blistering 62.1 percent from the field. Mattison came into the game averaging 2.3 points per game, but made 4-of-6 from the field for a team-high 11 points in the first half.
The Blackbirds led by as many as 22 points in the first 20 minutes, and took a 49-30 lead into halftime. Sweetney paced all scorers with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, while Hoffman had four points and three rebounds.