LORETTO, Pa. (Jan. 19, 2008) – The Saint Francis men's basketball team opened the second half with a big run, but Robert Morris responded with a run of its own to hold off the feisty Red Flash, 65-55, in Northeast Conference men's basketball action on Saturday night at DeGol Arena.

Saint Francis trailed 27-19 at the half after a poor shooting performance in the first 20 minutes. However, the Red Flash scored 13 of the first 17 points in the second half to take a 32-31 lead on a dunk by redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal /Riverdale Baptist) (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist). SFU took its largest lead of the game, 43-37, on a layup by junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, TX/Seagoville) (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) with 11:01 remaining, but the Colonials began to chip away.

Junior Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) hit a jumper to give the Red Flash a 48-45 lead with 6:40 left. But Robert Morris used an 8-0 run to take the lead for good, and finished the game by outscoring Saint Francis 17-7.

The Red Flash ran their season-long losing streak to nine games and fell to 3-15 overall, and 1-6 in the Northeast Conference. St. Francis-NY comes to town for another NEC contest against the Red Flash at 7 p.m. on Thursday night. The Colonials ran their record to 13-6 overall, and 4-2 in the NEC.

Redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) had a team-high 12 points to go with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for Saint Francis. Dieng added 11 points and 8 rebounds, and redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) had 9 points, 6 assists and one take away.

Fifth-year senior A.J. Jackson had a game-high14 points for RMU to go with 6 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals, while Jimmy Langhurst added 12 points and 3 assists.

Both teams struggled in the first half as Saint Francis had 13 turnovers and the Colonials pitched in with 11. Both teams hit on just two of 10 three-point attempts. But Robert Morris shot 43.5 percent from the field to take a 27-19 lead into the break. The Red Flash shot just 25.0 percent (6-of-24) in the first half.

Saint Francis came storming out of the gates in the second half by nailing five of its first seven shots to turn an eight point halftime deficit into a 31-30 ballgame. Down by just one, Nelson fed Dieng with a beautiful no-look pass to set him up for a slam dunk that would give the Red Flash their 32-31 lead.

Postgame Quotes

Head coach Bobby Jones

Opening Statement:

“First of all, I was really glad to see us come out to start the second half with probably one of our better starts of the season. Going in at half down by eight, I thought we made some smart plays and we made some big shots and that gave us a chance to get back in the ballgame. That certainly was a positive for this ball club. On the other hand, we made some costly turnovers late in the game. These are things that we have to continue to work on and we have to continue to teach. When it's a close game, I told them in the locker room that you have to take care of the basketball. If you're asking to come out because you are playing hard and you are working hard and you are fatigued, the next time you touch the basketball on the offensive end, you should probably turn that shot down. Those are things that we have to continue to teach these guys – understanding how to win. Their intentions are good. They certainly feel bad about the way the season is going, but we have to continue to work to keep the faith and get ready for the next one.”

Can this season be turned around at this point?

“I'm more concerned about getting ready for Thursday night. We have St. Francis-NY coming in here. One game at a time. We are promised 11 games at this point in the season. We have 11 opportunities to go out and redeem ourselves. My focus right now is getting these guys into practice tomorrow, get a good lift in, show them a few things and talk about a few things – particularly the turnovers late in the game. Let them see for themselves the areas where we need to improve and get ready for St. Francis-NY. We need to take this one game at a time. At this point I'm not looking at the outlook, I'm looking at the upcoming game and that's on Thursday night.”

Did you put any extra emphasis on this three-game homestand if you're going to turn this season around?

“No, because as a coach my job is to make sure that we are focused and get ready for the next game. Certainly coming into tonight, we knew that Robert Morris would be a very tough opponent. They are a very good basketball team, an experienced team. They came in here with a very good record, a 2-0 NEC road record, so we knew our focus had to be in preparation for tonight's game. We'll get ready tomorrow, take Monday off, and we'll start to talk about St. Francis-NY and get ready for the one on Thursday.”

On a nine game losing streak, what do you have to do to turn this around?

“I think the thing you have to understand when you are dealing with young people is that confidence is such a big thing. We were here at home a few weeks ago. We had 44 seconds left, we're up one against Monmouth and we turn it over on an inbound play. Certainly we work on those things everyday, we work on situations everyday – not everyday, that wouldn't be true – but three or four days a week we work on situations where we play those scenarios out teaching guys how to react and have success in those situations. We lose that game. Then we go to Wagner – arguably the best team in the league – and play extremely well. We get a great defensive stop with 9.9 seconds left. We inbound the ball, we run the play we want, and it's a bad exchange like a quarterback fumbling the ball on an exchange to a running back. Those are mistakes that you make when you're inexperienced and you don't have the confidence you need to win those games. That's what I mean by not getting a break. We need to find a way to win one of those games so these guys can feel better about themselves and that's the only way. You have to continue to work.”

Robert Morris' bench really helped them tonight, can you talk about that?

“The thing is that (Robert Morris) has two of the better players in our conference in Tony Lee and A.J. Jackson. A.J. Jackson is an experienced guy, he is a fifth-year guy. When the game is on the line, they have the ability to put the ball on the block to A.J. or Tony and chances are they are going to come up with something good. I thought their bench really helped them tonight because they are only seven deep. They were able to rest those guys and keep those guys fresh down the stretch. I thought the play of the game. We had a nice run going in the second half. We go back into a two-three zone and we allowed them to split our defense and we fouled Tony Lee in the middle of the lane on a jump shot. To me, those are the plays that we are really continuing to work with these guys showing them on film. If you're up seven or eight points, you've got the momentum, you've got the crowd on you're side, and the pressure is on the offense. We went into a two-three zone (defense) for them to take a contested three because there is a lot of pressure on that shot. But we allowed Tony Lee to split, we fouled him in the lane. It gives them an opportunity to rest and get two easy points. I think those are the plays, not to mention us not blocking out again, those are the plays that have gotten us in trouble. We have to continue to work and point those things out, and we will.”