LORETTO, Pa. (Feb. 7, 2008) – The Saint Francis men's basketball team rallied from a 25-point second half deficit to pull within two points, but fell short of completing the comeback in a 71-61 Northeast Conference defeat against Long Island on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.

The Red Flash lost their second straight game to fall to 5-17 overall, and 3-8 in the Northeast Conference. The Blackbirds won their second straight contest to improve to 12-10 overall, and 4-7 in the NEC. Saint Francis will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Thursday when Fairleigh Dickinson visits DeGol Arena.

Redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal /Riverdale Baptist) (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) made seven of 11 field goals for a team-high 16 points to go with 5 rebounds, junior Chris Berry (Seagoville, TX/Seagoville) (Seagoville, Texas / Seagoville) had 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists, and redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) added 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Sophomore Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) (Johnstown, Pa. / Johnstown) pitched in 8 points and 2 rebounds off the bench, giving him his best offensive output in the past 18 games.

Kellen Allen had a game-high 19 points off the bench for Long Island, while Wisseh had 18 points, and David Hicks added 12.

The Blackbirds made 16-of-26 field goal attempts and shot 61.5 percent in the first half, while the Red Flash made just 9-of-28 from the field for 32.1 percent. The result was what seemed to be an insurmountable 45-22 deficit at halftime for Saint Francis.

After the Blackbirds' Jaytornah Wisseh scored an easy layup to open the second half, the Red Flash went on a 20-5 run over 7 minutes, 43 seconds, to pull within 52-42 with 11:49 to play. Kyle Johnson answered an SFU 3-pointer with one of his own to give LIU a 13-point lead just 20 seconds later, but the Red Flash held the Blackbirds without a field goal for the next 5:30 during a 7-0 run that finished with a slam dunk by Dieng to make it 55-49 with 6:15 remaining.



Wisseh made a layup at the other end, but redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) fed Dieng with a sensational no-look pass for another dunk to make it 57-51 with 5:39 on the clock. Dieng then cut it to four points with a layup as he scored six straight Saint Francis points. LIU's Allen then made a layup followed by a Berry 3-pointer to make it 59-56 with 4:08 left. Allen made another layup and Sweetney answered with his own deuce before sophomore Chris McFarland (Montgomery Village, MD /Riverdale Baptist) (Montgomery Village, Md. / Riverdale Baptist) made the back end of two free throws to put the Red Flash in position for a remarkable comeback, 61-59, with 2:41 remaining in the game.

Saint Francis fouled at the other end and the Blackbird's missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw opportunity, but they came down with the offensive board and Wisseh made a field goal to make it 63-59 with 2:02 left. Long Island made all eight of its free throw attempts – four by Wisseh and four by Eugene Kotorobai – over the final 1:02 to seal the victory.

The Red Flash shot 59.1 percent in the second half, and held the Blackbirds to 7-of-24 from the field (29.2 percent) over the final 20 minutes. Long Island made 21-of-23 attempts (91.3 percent) from the charity stripe.

Postgame Quotes

Head coach Bobby Jones:

Press Conference Opening Statement

“It was definitely a tale of two halves. I thought the first half we came out and didn't have the focus to start the game the way that we did to start the second half. Had we come out the first 20 minutes the way we did the second 20 minutes, we would have had a much better chance to win the basketball game. But I credit our team for coming out in the second half and giving themselves a chance to win the basketball game. They made some plays and played hard in the second half, but we need to start the game that way. We didn't and obviously we came out of here with a 10 point loss tonight against a good LIU team.”

You guys seemed flat in such a big game?

“They are all big. One is no bigger than the other. You don't want to start a basketball game that way at any point, whether it be the first game of the season or the 22nd game of the season. At times this year we have gotten off to slow starts at home. That's something that we continue to pay attention to, and certainly want to do better at. There's never a good time to start a game that way. LIU came out, they played hard and made shots. They were getting after us pretty good, and we didn't respond the first 20 minutes like we should have. That was the difference.”

What is your message after the game and at practice tomorrow?

“We want to make the adjustment. We want to play better to start games. We've got to find a way to get ourselves mentally ready to play games, particularly at home. LIU is an inexperienced team. They are relatively young. The thing you don't want to do with a young team on the road is you can't let them make shots early. You really have to defend and rebound and not give them anything early because - like most players - once you start to score, particularly easy baskets, you tend to play a little bit more confident. You tend to play a little bit harder. I thought they were able to get some shots down in the first half. They got an unbelievable boost off the bench from Kellen Allen. The 15 points off the bench in the first half really gave them a nice boost. They were able to really get some easy buckets in transition. I thought that allowed them to have more confidence and they played harder the first 20 minutes. The message tomorrow is 'This game is behind us. We have a game on Saturday against FDU. We have one day to prepare for them. We've got to do our best in practice tomorrow to not allow tonight's start to carry over into Saturday night.' That's the message. We've got to carry on.”

Are you proud or angry at your team?

“I'm proud of the second half performance. They played hard. We tried a couple difference combinations. Guys off the bench gave us a big lift. I'm proud that they gave themselves a chance to win in the second half. I'm disappointed that we didn't play with more of a sense of urgency in the first half. To play from 25 down at home, most nights you're not going to win those games. I am proud that they fought back, but we just can't allow that to happen to us.”

LIU Coach Ferry said one of the things they wanted to do in the first half was attack the post. How do you allow Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal /Riverdale Baptist) to get four fouls in the first half?

“I certainly don't like to see him pick up four fouls in the first half. That's not our game plan. It wouldn't be a smart game plan. But to his credit, he played the rest of the game without fouling out. That gave an opportunity for some guys on the bench to step up, and they did. They had a good game plan. Kellen Allen is a very good post player. If you remember two or three years ago, I think it was 2004 in the first round of the playoffs, he scored the first eight out of 12 points against Jason Osborne, who was a pretty big guy for us, as a freshman. So we knew coming in that he was very capable. He certainly gave his team a big boost in the first half.”

In your worst case scenario, could you have expected the team to come out to such a slow start?

“You never want to see a team, particularly at home, get off to such a slow start. This team certainly understands that you have to get yourself ready to play each and every night.”

Do they understand?

“This team understands that they need to get themselves ready to play each and every night. This is Division I college basketball and good teams are going to come in here, and good teams are going to play you hard, particularly when you are in conference play. They understand that for some reason there have been times throughout this season where we haven't played with a sense of urgency in the first half for whatever reason, particularly at home. We didn't have that problem the last two outings here. I thought we played well against St. Francis-NY obviously, and then the game on Saturday against Central Connecticut, a very good basketball team. I thought our focus for 40 minutes was good. And then we come off the road against a very good Quinnipiac team and led by one at half. Then there was a four or five minute spurt that got away from us in the second half. But for the most part I thought we did some nice things. We probably turned the ball over too many times, particularly on the road. But you never want to start that way. You can't play from 25 down against good teams in league play. That's a concern that we need to continue to work on.”

Redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist):

What's going on in your mind now? Are you proud that the team came back? Or is the overriding component that the first half let it get away?

“Well I credit the team for coming back 20 points in the second half. In practice, we do it all the time. Coach Jones sets up situations like that all of the time. We do that a lot in practice. I knew we were capable of coming back. We just had to come together as a team and get stops and turn them into fast break points.”

How mad are you at the first half (performance)?

“It's hurting for all of us as a team because we know we can do better than this. One of the things that coach Jones has been preaching all year, especially at home, is to come out with energy and set the tone. I know we've been struggling with that a little bit. It's hurting because we took a step back a little bit coming off two great games here (in this building).”

Redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring):

Why do you think the team didn't come out focused to start the game?

“I don't know if anyone knows that answer. If we came out focused, it would have been a totally different game. The coaches, through situations at practice, have given us the confidence of what we can do, knowing certain situations being down by 20, and obviously we showed it (that we can come back). But we can't get into a hole like that again. We can't afford it.”