Men's Basketball 1/24/2009 12:45:28 PM

TEANECK, N.J. – The Saint Francis men’s basketball team out-shot and out-rebounded Fairleigh Dickinson, but the Knights made 32 free throws to defeat the Red Flash 69-56 on Thursday night at the Rothman Center. Saint Francis shot 45.1 percent and had 34 rebounds, and FDU made 38.3 percent of its field goal attempts and pulled down 30 rebounds. However, the Knights capitalized on 78 percent of 41 free throw attempts, while the Red Flash struggled at the foul line with seven makes in just 15 attempts. SFU will try to bounce back with a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday at St. Francis-NY. The Red Flash won a meeting earlier this year against the Terriers, 69-65, at DeGol Arena. Junior Devin Sweetney (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) had a team-high 12 points – all in the second half – to go with four rebounds and three steals, and senior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) and junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) had 11 points each. Senior Cale Nelson (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) dished out six assists and had three points. He is inching closer to the SFU record books with 317 career assists, just six shy of tying Garrett Farha (2004-06) and Don Graham (1975-69) for sixth on the school’s all-time list. Eric Moore paced all scorers with 17 points for the Knights, while Cameron Tyler and John Galvin had 16 and 10 points, respectively. Overall, there were eight ties and eight lead changes in the ballgame with Fairleigh Dickinson taking the lead for good on a Galvin bucket – FDU’s final field goal of the evening - with 4:18 remaining to make it 55-53. After that bucket, the Knights scored their final 14 points from the charity stripe.

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – John Gooden completed a traditional 3-point play with 2.3 seconds remaining to turn a two-point Saint Francis lead into a 58-57 victory for St. Francis-NY in Northeast Conference men's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at the Pope Center.

Junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) made 8-of-11 field goal attempts for a game-high 20 points to go with five rebounds for the Red Flash, while junior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) finished with 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Ricky Cadell scored nine points during a key stretch in the second half to lead the Terriers with 17 points and six assists, and Jamaal Womack finished with 13 points. Nigel Byam and Gooden each pulled down 11 rebounds.

Senior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) made a pair of critical free throws with 11.2 seconds remaining in the game to give the Red Flash a 57-55 lead. With the game clock running down, St. Francis-NY got the ball to Gooden along the baseline and he drove to the basket for the layup to tie the game at 57-57. However, Jukic was called for a foul, and Gooden, who is a 60 percent free throw shooter, nailed his attempt to give the Terriers a one-point lead.

SFC head coach Brian Nash called timeout to set his defense up, while Red Flash head coach Don Friday set up a final play. SFU had a good look at the basket, but senior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) had his game-winning attempt bounce off the front of the rim and high into the air, but came down outside of the cylinder to end the game.

Saint Francis shot 40.0 percent in the game, and finished with 14 assists and just six turnovers, the team's best assist-to-turnover ratio in a game this season. The Red Flash had eight assists, and zero turnovers in the second half.

The Terriers took a 30-27 lead into halftime, and opened the second half on a 7-0 run. But the Red Flash answered with a 16-3 run in which SFU had key contributions from seniors Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, IL /Plainfield Central ) (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central) and Grant Surprenant (Palatine, IL /Palatine) (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine). Surprenant hit a big 3-pointer and then had a steal and pass to Nelson for an easy layup to cut SFC's lead to 42-40. Jackson then made a reverse layup and had a steal and another fastbreak layup to give the Red Flash their first lead of the game at 44-42 with 11:03 remaining.

The Terriers again gained the lead, but Sweetney made his first points of the game to tie it at 52-52, and Cadell answered with a 3-pointer to give them a 55-52 lead. Jukic made a layup and then sank 1-of-2 free throws to tie it at 55-55 to set up the final sequence.

Saint Francis will return to action 7 p.m. Thursday when Monmouth visits DeGol Arena.

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