OLEAN, N.Y. – Junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) scored 16 points, and senior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, IL /Plainfield Central ) (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central) tallied a career-high 11 points, but the Saint Francis men's basketball team faded late in a 73-66 loss at a tough Atlantic-10 St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night.

Jukic also added four rebounds, two assists and one block, Jackson pitched in with five rebounds and a steal, senior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) had nine points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals, and senior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) added seven points, six assists and a career-high four steals. Junior Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) (Johnstown, Pa. / Johnstown) tied a season-high with eight points and pulled down eight rebounds, one shy of his career high.

Ray Blackburn had a game-high 22 points for the Bonnies to go with four rebounds, five assists and four steals, and Malcolm Eleby had 13 points.

The Red Flash dropped to 4-7 overall in front of 2,239 fans at the Reilly Center, while St. Bonaventure improved to 6-3. SFU will take off for Christmas and return to action with a Noon tipoff on New Years Eve, at Vanderbilt.

“I wish we could have the five minutes back at the end of the game,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “I thought we could get some better shots. But I'm proud of our guys for coming into a tough place to play. I thought we did some good things against a very good A-10 team. I know that I have 11 kids who are fighting hard right now.”

There were eight lead changes and three ties in a back-and-forth game. SFU jumped out with a 24-19 lead, its largest of the game, with 10:03 to go in the first half. However, the Bonnies responded with an 8-0 run and took a 27-24 lead with 6:54 to play in the first stanza. The Red Flash took the lead one more time in the half on a Jukic layup to go ahead 34-33 with 1:08 remaining. But SBU scored the final four points of the half.

Saint Francis battled back and took a brief 45-44 lead on a Ford jumper six minutes into the second half, and the game stood at a 50-50 tie when the Bonnies went on a 10-0 run to jump ahead 60-50 with 6:59 to go. However, the Red Flash wouldn't go easy and came back with a 10-2 run of their own to pull within two, 62-60, with 4:35 remaining.

But St. Bonaventure scored the game's next four points to go ahead 66-60 with 2:35 to play. Jukic nailed a pair of free throws to pull within four, but Jonathan Hall hit a jumper to make it a six-point game again with 1:44 remaining. Jackson hit two free throws of his own to pull SFU within four again at 68-64 with 1:38 to play, but Eleby made a layup with 1:24 left to make it a six-point game again.

The Red Flash came down the other end and found Jukic wide open for a layup and a foul to make it 70-66 with 1:17 remaining. Jukic missed his free throw attempt, but the Red Flash got a stop at the other end for an opportunity on offense. However, a 3-point attempt went in and out of the cylinder and Chris Matthews pulled down the rebound for SBU. Eleby made 1-of-2 free throws, and then Blackburn made a pair of free throws with 5.8 seconds remaining to seal the win for the Bonnies.