LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 20, 2008) – Junior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) had a career high 25 points and senior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) had career highs with 12 assists and three steals, but Duquense pulled away in the final 14 minutes for an 83-72 victory to spoil the home opener for the Saint Francis men's basketball team on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.

Junior guard Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) added 17 points and 6 rebounds for the Red Flash, who dropped to 0-3 on the young season with the loss. Sweetney was 8-of-17 from the field, and added nine rebounds and two blocks. Junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) had nine points and five rebounds.

Saint Francis will try to bounce back with another game against an in-state rival on Saturday night. The Red Flash will play host to Bucknell at 8 p.m. at DeGol Arena. Saint Francis will hold its annual Alumni Night and will honor the school's 1957-58 National Invitational Tournament team. SFU will hold a tree dedication ceremony earlier in the afternoon to honor former player Jeff Churchill, who passed away earlier this fall.

The Dukes were paced on the scoreboard by four players in double digit scoring. Aaron Jackson, who was 9-of-15 from the field, had 20 points, four rebounds, seven assists and seven steals.

The Red Flash got off to a good start, jumping out to a 16-10 lead just 5:15 into the game. Sweetney and Ford had eight points each at that point to help SFU jump out to its largest lead of the game.

Saint Francis held that lead for much of the first half as Duquesne didn't take its first lead until Jackson took one of his seven steals to the basketball to break a 21-21 tie with a layup with 5:37 to go in the half.

Junior Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) (Johnstown, Pa. / Johnstown) tied the game back up with a layup off a Nelson feed, but Eric Evans made a free throw to give the Dukes a 24-23 edge with 5:06 remaining. Evans missed the second free throw attempt, but Bill Clark pulled down the offensive board and fed Evans, who nailed a 3-pointer to make it a four-point contest.

With Duquesne leading 29-25 with 4:36 to play, Sweetney made both ends of a pair of free throw attempts, and senior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, IL /Palatine) (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) hit a big 3-pointer to give the Red Flash a 31-30 lead. SFU would build a four point lead with a 6-0 run to take a 36-32 lead with 1:35 remaining in the half. But the Dukes answered with an 8-0 run and took a 42-38 lead into the break.

Duquesne got off to the hot start in the second half by extending its lead to eight points, 50-42, just 2:31 into the final 20 minutes. That lead stood at 53-46 when the Red Flash went on a 7-2 run to pull within a bucket at 55-53 with 14:09 remaining in the game.

But Saint Francis went cold over the next four minutes during an 8-0 Dukes run. Saint Francis missed two shots and turned the ball over seven times during the run, while Duquesne took a 63-53 lead with 10:10 to play. The Dukes held a 69-57 lead with just under eight minutes to go when the Red Flash went on a 5-0 run to cut that lead to 69-62 with 4:50 remaining. But that's as close as Saint Francis would get the rest of the way.

Saint Francis saw a marked improvement playing at home for the first time this season. After shooting 25.9 percent and 34.7 percent from the field at Texas Tech and American, respectively, the Red Flash hit 24-of-53 field goal attempts in shooting 45.3 percent against the Dukes. SFU also made 16-of-18 free throw attempts, for an 88.9 percent success rate. Sweetney made 7-of-8, and senior Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) sank all six of his free throw attempts.

HEAD COACH DON FRIDAY (OPENING STATEMENT):
“You know, coming into tonight with Duquesne, we knew certainly it was really hard to simulate their athleticism with their 3-4 and their 5 men. You saw that as that game wore on – early in the game as the tempo went at that pace - I thought we went toe-to-toe with them for the first 15 or 16 minutes of that game. But when they can continue to do that and go to their bench, that starts to wear on you. And as you saw in the later stages, they did a really good job. I'm shocked that the rebounds are that close at 32 to 31 because it seemed like down the stretch that they came up with every loose ball and got every deflection and created that in easy buckets. And when you are doing that and you're playing catch-up, our margin for error right now as a program is so narrow. We really have to work on taking care of the basketball, limiting teams on those fast, busted out transition opportunities. Again, the same demon reared its head again tonight – 22 turnovers and I'd be willing to bet that they probably scored 24 to 25 points on easy buckets. In basketball, our goal is to hold teams to 39 percent. Tonight, they are at 58 percent for the game and that is just totally unacceptable and that falls on me.”

What are you seeing that you like right now?
“The first thing I like about this group of kids is that they come in and work hard everyday. Now, that line is only going to work so long about playing hard. We all know that programs go that way. I was saying that our kids work hard everyday, and they are extremely coachable. We are asking them to play a different style, and I think at times that you saw that our offense really seemed to have some free-flowing motion and we got easy buckets and great looks. But there were also some times tonight that we stood and we expected, we watched guys play basketball. We are not good enough to do that. We have maybe one or two guys, certainly with Marquis and Devin sitting here, they are capable of breaking guys down. But the other seven guys on our team, they can't play that way. And these guys can't do it alone, and I can't coach a team that way. We gotta all be on the same page. I would say that in our practices right now, we are making headway. If you saw us play two weeks ago, you'd say 'Wow, they are really getting better.' And that's the thing right now. I know this is a marathon. It's not a sprint. We knew that coming in, but it's one thing for people to say that we are going to build for the future. But I've got a great senior in Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) and he's a quality person. And he deserves my effort, and he deserves every guy's best effort to send him out a winner and turn this program in the right direction. That's a positive.”

What are some things that you think you need to improve quickly?
“I think we've got to see who is going to get the right shots in at the right time. Tonight we had a great look out of a timeout, and we got a wide open shot for Marquis. I think he passed it out. We went one more (pass), and it resulted in a great look for a made basket. We went right back to that same play. Now, you know that people scout you and now they are prepared for it. They switched every thing. And I bet you if we took one more dribble, I would be willing to bet on film that Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) is wide open slicing to the bucket. We made the wrong read, and that comes with experience. You can't simulate that in practice here on a Saturday morning when you are getting grabbed and held.”