ORETTO, Pa. – Wagner shot 68.0 percent from the field in the first half to build a lead and then held on late to spoil the return of junior forward
Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) and the Saint Francis men's basketball team in a 76-68 victory Thursday night at DeGol Arena.
The Red Flash had not played at home in 40 days, a span of six games, all of which Sweetney missed with a hand injury.
Junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) had a career-high 22 points, 16 of which came in the second half on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. He added four rebounds, one steal and one assist in the game. Sweetney, SFU's leading scorer and rebounder, had a successful return to the court with 13 points, eight rebounds and a season-high three steals.
But SFU didn't have an answer for the balance of the Seahawks, who had four players score in double-digits. Joey Mundweiler had a team-high 17 points, Justin Drummond had 15 points, Jamal Smith added 14, and Llewchean Radford had 13.
The Red Flash dropped their seventh straight game to fall to 4-12 on the year, and 1-5 in the Northeast Conference. Saint Francis will try to bounce back with a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday, against Central Connecticut State, at DeGol Arena.
Wagner (10-6, 3-3 NEC) built its biggest lead of the game to 17 points, 56-39, on a pair of Radford free throws with 12:59 remaining. But Saint Francis began to chip away with solid defense and a purpose on the offensive end to pull within seven points, 59-52, with a 13-3 run with 5:49 remaining. The Red Flash held the Seahawks to 1-of-11 from the field and forced five turnovers during a span of 10:25 during the comeback bid.
Radford made a layup to make it 52-38, Wagner, with 15:08 remaining. After Jukic made 1-of-2 from the stripe, Clifton Spiller and Radford combined for four free throws to extend the Seahawks lead to 56-39.
Jukic started SFU's good run with his hook shot from the base line to cut it to 56-43. The Red Flash forced a turnover at the other end, and senior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, IL /Plainfield Central ) (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central) found Jukic for a back door layup for two more points with 10:30 left. Back at the other end of the floor, senior Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) drew his second charge of the game to give the ball back to Saint Francis. Sweetney missed a 3-point attempt, but came down with his own rebound and a put-back to make it 56-47 with 9:44 remaining. However, Tyler Murray hit a wide open 3-pointer to end the 8-0 SFU run and make it 59-47 with 9:47 to play.
But the Red Flash kept charging as Jukic made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe and, after a defensive stand, senior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) hit Jackson for a backdoor pass and easy layup to make it 59-50 with 6:22 remaining. It was the 300th career assist for Nelson. After another good defensive stand for Saint Francis, Jackson then found Jukic for another easy layup to make it 59-52 with 5:42 left in the game.
Radford stopped the bleeding once again with a pair of free throws for Wagner to extend its lead to 61-52, and Mundweiler made a long 2-pointer from the corner to make it 63-52 with 4:43 left.
With the score at 65-56, Sweetney nailed a 3-pointer from the elbow to pull SFU within six points at 65-59 with 2:14 to play, but Mundweiler put the game out of reach with another 3-pointer to make it a nine point game with 1:41 remaining.
The Seahawks made 17-of-22 free throw attempts in the game, including 8-for-8 in the final 49.3 seconds to ice the victory. The Red Flash made 10-of-13 free throw attempts in the game.
It was a first half of runs for both teams, beginning with Wagner making a pair of baskets to open with a 4-0 lead. The Red Flash stormed back with five unanswered points on a 3-pointer and then a layup by Nelson. However, the Seahawks answered right back with nine straight points to jump out 13-5 in never relinquishing another first half lead.
Wagner led 16-7 when SFU went on another run to pull back within four points at 17-13, which was capped by a Surprenant 3-pointer from the corner to end the 6-1 run. But the Seahawks built their biggest lead so far at 28-17 before the Red Flash made another run. Jackson went unmarked through the paint for an easy layup before a Jukic steal and pair of free throws made it 28-21. Sweetney had a great defensive stand at the other end, and then a Nelson no-look pass to Jukic for an easy layup cut it to 28-23.
But Wagner finished the half strong on a 12-4 run to take a 40-27 lead into the break. Smith was 6-of-9 from the field for 14 points in the first half for the Seahawks, who shot 68 percent on 17-of-25 shooting. Sweetney made 4-of-7 field goal attempts for a team-high eight points at the break. He also had a season-high three steals in the first 20 minutes to go with two rebounds. The Red Flash were just 11-of-28 for 39 percent in the first half.
Game Notes: Senior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, IL /Plainfield Central ) had a career-high four assists for Saint Francis; Senior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) went over the 700 point and 300 assist marks for his career. He now has 702 career points and 301 career assists; Senior Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) had nine points to give him 300 for his career; The Red Flash tied a season high with 18 assists, and their nine steals were one shy of a season high; Junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) had career highs with 22 points, nine field goals and 15 field goal attempts.
Saint Francis Head Coach Don Friday:
Opening Remarks –
“Our program is in a position right now where if we are going to achieve any kind of positive results in terms of wins, we need to put an immediate stop to playing without purpose. And I mean that by saying we are not talented enough in spots to just go out and let our guys play. We need to create synergy, and we need to create situations where guys are in positions to make plays they are capable of making. Role identification and recognizing the down and distance. We do that in spurts, and there are times we just put the blinders on and fight it tooth and nail. And until we realize to do that against a team like Wagner, or Quinnipiac, Long Island, whomever, we are not good enough to go out and just play. We have to play with purpose. And when you compound it on the defensive end, and you let people shoot 50 percent and you have a negative assist-to-turnover ratio and you don't shoot more free throws, that is a recipe for losing. Right now, that's what has to be corrected, and that starts with the coaching staff. And I will demand our players, we will change that around. Better done is better than well said.”
How do you translate that to the team:
“I'm going to hold them accountable. How do you go out there and play really good for spurts? Listen I'm one of these guys too, give credit to Wagner. They took us out of things. That is a good ball club. But in order to beat a good ball club like that, you have to get there a little differently. They are strong. They are rugged. They clog up the paint. Again, we game plan, we strategize, we try to put in position to be successful. We have to recognize what we are capable of doing and what we are not capable of doing. And that's got to start. We have to move ahead. We have to say, 'Here we go.' Not 'Here we go again.'”
How do you do that when you are in the middle of a losing streak?
“With Devin going down – and I said we weren't going to let our kids make excuses – and we are asking kids to play a lot of minutes. We are putting guys in some positions where we are asking them to do more. And in some guys, we are going to have to ask them to do less in order for our team to do more. We don't just all of a sudden come to practice and say, 'oh this looks like a good play. Lets run this today.' We try to really get our guys to play with a comfort zone. We come out of a timeout tonight with our big kid on the floor – Jukic comes off the floor, and we say that we've got to get him a rest. Right now his health is on bubble gum and a shoe string. That's where his health is right now. He's giving us everything he has. When he comes out of the game, the dynamics of our team change even more because people are going to try to punch it down our throat. So if you're going to play small, you've got to take some time off the clock. We come out and again, we take shots, the wrong guys take shots. And all of a sudden, now you have those jailbreaks. It was 20-2 tonight in fast break points. That's just coming out everytime down and trying to throw a bomb. Again, that's got to stop, and it's going to start with me.”
How are you going to turn it around here? It isn't simple.
“No it's not (simple). It's a conditioned habit. It's a conditioned habit. I would have called a timeout after every play tonight, and I would have put them in a position and I would have said 'run it, and run it again.' But unfortunately in a game like this, you can't do that. But I will promise you this, you can come to my practice tomorrow at 3:30 and you'll see what we run. We will run it, and if they don't run it, we will be here to the limit and we will run it and we will do it again. That comes with stopping dribble penetration. It comes with boxing out. It comes with stopping transition. It's going to take guys taking charges, and going in there and doing little things. Not just stuffing the box score. That's where we are at right now. Something happens between the time we practice, and the time the lights come on. That's the thing right now that I've got to figure out. As I say to my team, I'm challenging my team. I'm challenging my guys because this stuff going to (the media) and to folks and coming in here and saying that we play hard. That's not life. There are people right now who aren't making any money, or there are people who are sick. They aren't telling the people that they owe bills to, 'oh, we're trying.' They want results. This is part of the education process. We're going to try to figure out a way to teach our kids.”
Are there some positives?
“Positives with Devin back is that he is a difference-maker. What we have to do with Devin is Devin is too good of a ball player to be turning the ball over the way that he is. His assist-to-turnover ratio, we have to stop that part, and he'll be the first to admit that. We've got to continue to find a way to get the ball to Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy). I really like what the kid Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) is doing right now. We've been spending a lot of late nights in the office – the coaching staff – and that kid is in this gym all of the time. And he is a 3.0 student. He is doing the things the right way. And that's something that you want to hang your hat on. Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) – the local kid – Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) is maximizing everything that he can give to this team. And those are the things that I'm going to go back to tonight and hang my hat on. I'm going to figure out a way to continue to do those things.”
Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist)
When you hear your coach mad like that, are you mad too?
“Of course I'm mad because all coach is doing in practice is preparing us. He's not going out there fighting through those screens. He's not going out there trying to guard the ball trying to stop dribble penetration. We're out there. Yes it frustrates me because we shouldn't be losing these ball games.”
How antsy were you to get back?
“It's been very tough because before I got hurt, the team got a couple wins. The team really seemed like our chemistry was improving and we were winning ball games. It was very tough for me to sit there and watch. When I was out, I did my best. I was watching film. I was always in my playbook trying to encourage my team. Just doing whatever I can. Staying conditioned when we were on the road. Coming into the game, coach just said to go out there and play hard.”
Wagner Head Coach Mike Deane
Opening Statement:
“It didn't look like we were ever going to give up the lead. Although, we made some bad plays late in the game and Saint Francis continued to play hard until the end. I think that when we get out and run and we push the ball, we are a little bit quicker than they are right now. Now when Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) gets healthy again, that might make some difference. He's a fine player, and that's his first game back. I thought he did a great job considering. And we had trouble with the big fella (Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy)). But with Saint Francis you've got to pick your poison. Either you've got to get out and cover those guys with the three, or you can help a lot on Mislav. We decided to just try to play him one-on-one, and he got their points. But they didn't get much from the 3-point line, which was good from our perspective.”
Why did you have so much trouble with Mislav?
“He had a good game. We didn't help much. When we did, we made some bad decisions. We fell down twice, and when you are on the road you don't get that call very often and our guys should know that. We fouled twice on 3-point shots. When you think of some of the plays we made, you wonder how coaches have any hair left much less the grey hair. But I thought we were in control of the game, almost the whole time. I thought we moved the ball well. When we pass the ball well, we are going to shoot a reasonably high percentage. We shot a pretty good percentage all year long.”
How did you game plan for Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) being a game time decision?
“We prepared that he would play because nobody would tell us that he wasn't going to play. If he had started, then we would have started a different lineup. But he didn't start. I expected him to play from the minute we saw he was dressed in here tonight. We knew it was about six weeks since the time he injured his hand. I hope his hand is healthy because I think he is one of the premier players in the league. Certainly that makes Saint Francis a better team when he is healthy, and I think he'll get better and better as it goes along. For the first time back he had 13 and 6 or something like that. That's a pretty good night out for the first time back. But you could tell there was some rust on him. He's a good athlete and a good player. We expected him to play, and we're not surprised that he did. And I'm not surprised that he played well either.”
