BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Feb. 14, 2008) – Redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal /Riverdale Baptist) (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) tallied a career high 20 points to go with 9 rebounds to lead the Saint Francis men's basketball team to a 63-50 victory over St. Francis-NY in Northeast Conference action on Thursday night at the Peter Aquilone Court.

The Red Flash snapped a three-game losing streak and moved into a tie for seventh place in the eight team NEC playoff picture. Saint Francis (6-18, 4-9) will return to action 4 p.m. Saturday when it visits third-place Sacred Heart for a 4 p.m. tip. That game can be heard live on The EDGE 1400 AM, and a link to listen will be available at www.goRedFlash.com.

Dieng drained 8-of-14 field goal attempts to score a game-high 20 points. Junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, TX/Seagoville) (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) had 10 points, 8 rebounds and tied a career high with 4 steals, while redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) added 9 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) had 9 points and 4 assists.

The Red Flash held the Terriers' top two scorers – Robert Hines and Jamaal Womack – to 8 points and 4 points, respectively. Ricky Cadell had a team-high 15 points for St. Francis-NY.

After Saint Francis took a 30-22 lead into halftime, Bass Yessoufou cut the lead to five points by scoring the first three points of the second half. Dieng made it 32-25 with a baseline jumper, but Yessoufou again connected on a bucket to cut it to five points with 17:57 remaining.

However, the Red Flash went on a 13-2 run to make it 45-29, punctuated by a Dieng jumper, with 11:50 to play. Dieng scored Saint Francis' first eight points of the second half and had 10 points in the first 8:10 to help his teammates build a 16-point lead.

Junior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) made a layup with 10:17 remaining to give the Red Flash their biggest lead at 17 points, 50-33. But the Terriers began to apply more defensive pressure and went on a 7-0 run to cut it to 10 points, 50-40, with 6:28 remaining. Kayode Ayeni nailed a 3-pointer with 3:08 to play to make it 55-48 SFU. The Red Flash committed a turnover on their next possession, and St. Francis-NY had a chance to cut the lead to as little as four points. However, Hines missed a jumper and Ford came down with a big defensive rebound for Saint Francis. Berry made a jumper at the other end to give the Red Flash a 57-48 lead with 2:05 left in the game. The Terriers never got any closer than eight points as SFU made 4-of-6 from the charity stripe to ice the game in the final two minutes.

The Red Flash played a great first half, especially on the defensive end of the ball. They took a 30-22 lead into the break behind 9 points, 5 rebounds and a block from Dieng. They held Hines, a preseason all-NEC selection, to two points and two rebounds in the first half. Hines is the Terriers' leading scorer. Their second-leading scorer, Womack, had just two points in the opening frame.

Berry scored five points in helping Saint Francis to a quick 14-4 lead just over six minutes into the contest. Womack put the finishing touches on a layup to pull the Terriers within 22-17 with 5:45 remaining in the first half, but the Red Flash held St. Francis-NY to just two field goals over the final five minutes to open the lead to eight points at the half.

Ford finished with 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a career high 4 steals in the ballgame for Saint Francis. The Red Flash, who had a season-high 13 steals as a team, swept the two-game season series with the Terriers for the second straight season. St. Francis-NY's total of 50 points was the lowest for an SFU opponent since the Red Flash held the Terriers to the same point total in a 54-50 contest Dec. 7, 2006, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Terriers' 36.1 percent field goal percentage was also the lowest for an SFU opponent this season. Dieng led the Red Flash in scoring for the third time in their last four games. Saint Francis won its third road game of the season, which is most for the program since the 2004-05 campaign.

Postgame Comments:

Head coach Bobby Jones:

Opening remarks:

“I thought tonight our defensive focus to start this basketball game was outstanding. I thought we jumped out to one of our better starts to a half to begin this ballgame, and it was all a credit to our defense. We jumped out 14-4 to start this game. We had our minds set to defend. We only gave up four points in transition to them in the first half, and that's one of the big keys to their offense and one of the big keys to their style of play. I thought our ability to hold them to only four points in transition, which was a credit to our defensive focus, is really what got us off to a great start. I thought offensively the first half we did some nice things. Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal /Riverdale Baptist) got us off to a good start being aggressive offensively. He played smart defensively. I thought Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) didn't try to force the action on the offensive end. He was only 1-for-4 (from the field) in the first half, but he was playing hard. He's been battling the flu the last couple days, so his energy level was not quite there. I thought Chris Berry (Seagoville, TX/Seagoville), Cale ran the show, Marquis gave us good play defensively on Womack to start the game, and our bench really stepped up tonight. We got quality minutes from everybody that played. Sometimes it's not how many points you score. It's just (that you) go in for two minutes and block out, go in for two minutes and play great defense. How about just raise the level from an emotional standpoint. That's the message we've been preaching to these guys. It's not necessarily the stats line. It's your effort, it's your focus, it's your block outs, and the things that don't always show up in the box scores. I thought our bench did an outstanding job in that area tonight.”

You always talk about your guys playing with passion. Did they do it tonight?

“They did. I thought that was one of the reasons why we looked pretty good to start this game. It's unfortunate with young kids. A lot of times, their effort is based on how many points they score, and that's probably a carry over from high school. But at this level, you really have to allow your hard play, your effort and just the little things – hustle plays, loose balls, deflections, rebounds, running the floor hard in transition – you have to allow those things to get you jump started at the college level because you are matched up most nights against good players, good defenders and tough-minded people that won't necessarily allow you an opportunity to score, especially easily. You can't let offense dictate how hard you play, and that's the process that we are going through. I think that guys are starting to understand that. We've got to play them one at a time. This, without question, is a big win. It keeps our (playoff) hopes alive. I'm really proud of the way we played. Understanding that our backs are kind of up against the wall, playing a team like St. Francis-NY where they have been very, very tough here in this building. It was a must win for them. I thought that our kids showed great heart. But I don't want to say too much because I don't want them to regress. We want to enjoy this bus ride over to Connecticut, but we have some more unfinished work to do on Saturday afternoon against the third-place team in the league. Sacred Heart is an outstanding basketball team. They shoot the ball extremely well. So we're going to enjoy this for just a second. Once we climb on that bus, we're thinking about the Pioneers. Lets just play them one at a time, and come out with the same focus on Saturday afternoon at Sacred Heart as we did to start this game here tonight against St. Francis-NY.”