LORETTO, Pa. -- The Saint Francis men's basketball team jumped out to a quick five point lead, but didn't have an answer for the Long Island offense in a 73-58 setback in both teams' Northeast Conference openers on Thursday evening at DeGol Arena.
Junior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) hit a 3-pointer for the game's first points, and juniors Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) and Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) each made buckets to spark a 7-2 Red Flash lead.
SFU hit five of its first six attempts from the field, but made just two of its next 11 to fall behind 21-13 with 9:06 remaining in the first half. The Red Flash never recovered in have their two-game win streak snapped. Saint Francis will return to action when it plays host to St. Francis-NY in a rare Noon contest on Saturday afternoon at DeGol Arena.
Sweetney paced SFU with 13 points, but struggled on 4-of-13 shooting. He added five rebounds and had two steals. Ford made 5-of-8 field goals for 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Jukic also made 5-of-8 field goal attempts for 10 points, four rebounds and a block.
Kyle Johnson led the Blackbirds with 17 points, while Jaytornah Wisseh and David Hicks had 11 points each and Ron Manigault pulled down 12 rebounds to go with five points.
Saint Francis led 11-7 with one turnover with 15:58 to go in the first half when Long Island came out of the break with a 7-0 run, forcing the Red Flash into three turnovers during that span.
With the Blackbirds leading 21-13, senior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, IL /Palatine) (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) hit a 12-foot jumper to make it 21-15. At the other end of the floor, he drew a charge call to give the ball right back to SFU. However, after a missed shot and an offensive rebound, the Red Flash turned the ball over and LIU went on another 8-0 run to pull ahead 29-15 with 4:46 to play in the half. The Blackbirds would lead by as many as 15 in the first half, but Saint Francis was able to battle back to within nine points, 34-25, with Surprenant's jumper before the buzzer sounded.
At the beginning of the second half, Sweetney stole a pass and went the length of the floor for the slam dunk to cut the Long Island lead to seven, 34-27. However, the Blackbirds scored the next 14 points to put the game out of reach, 48-27 with 14:04 to play. LIU led by as many as 24 points in the second half.
Saint Francis got it as close as 13 with the ball and a chance to inch closer, at 65-52 with 4:46 remaining, but came up empty.
Long Island made 30-of-61 field goal attempts (49.2 percent), while SFU made 24-of-55 (43.6 percent). The Red Flash struggled on the boards all night with LIU holding a 40-29 advantage in rebounds. It was the first time in the last five games that Saint Francis was outrebounded by an opponent.
Long Island Head Coach Jim Ferry:
“We are a very, very good offensive rebounding team. We were last year, and we continue to work on it. Because what we are not very good at – we shot the ball well today. Normally we don't shoot the ball as we did, so it's something that we continually work on. And it was definitely key to this game. I thought we had a little bit more athleticism, even though we are smaller than them. I thought we had a little bit more quickness to the ball to chase the ball, and it played out that way. I thought Ron Manigault was just a monster for us tonight, and I thought he really set the tone. Which then Saint Francis started worrying about him, which allowed other guys to get to the glass a little bit.”
It looked like you guys wanted it a little more, did you see it that way?
“I don't know about that. I think Saint Francis is really playing well. I think they've done a very good job. In our league, to win three out of four and two in a row on the road – no one is doing that. For them to be doing that right now, I think that is a credit to them. I thought we came in very, very hungry. I think we did play within our game plan, and attacking the offensive glass. We are a group that tasted some wins last year, and we're trying to keep that going.”
Head Coach Don Friday:
(Opening Statement)
“I thought as the game started off, we hit some open shots and really offensively it looked like it was going to be an easy night. But I thought at the same time that it was going to be fool's gold because those things were coming off broken players where guys were going out there and playing, not selfishly, but they were playing individually making big plays. As the game went along there, we needed to be able to go and settle down and be able to get quality shots that we are capable of making. We weren't able to do that. I am thoroughly disappointed in the way we played defensively, specifically on the glass as it pertained to offensive rebounds for Long Island. But make no mistake about it, I thought that Jim Ferry and his staff coming in here, they did a great job in preparation. Physically, they were right on with what they had to do. They drove the basketball, they attacked the glass, and they made us have to be able to compete with them physically. And they won this battle tonight. We'll hold our heads high here. We'll address what we need to get better at, and we'll come right back in here (Friday), and we're going to work on getting ready for a very good St. Francis-NY team coming in as well. It's one game. It's a hiccup in the road. It's one that we can discount, but one we've got to draw and learn from, and not let it happen again.”
You were coming off back-to-back road games, and had a lot of hope for this game. What did you see tonight?
“Yesterday we had a tremendous practice. And I thought that our energy and our intensity – it was a short practice. It was about an hour and 15 minutes because we've played a saturated number of games in a short period of time, so I wanted to have legs. I was disappointed. These kids didn't purposely do it, but I don't know if expectation-wise if they were hoping, but we knew Long Island was going to come in here and be ready for a battle. I'm just disappointed because the little things that got us over at Morgan State and at Youngstown State – the ability to keep the ball out of the paint, the ability to box out and not give up second chance points, and our ability to get the ball to the people who can do good things with it when they have a purpose, we didn't do those things tonight. Now that falls on me, but also our kids are smart kids and they are proud kids and they know that falls on them as well.”
