LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis men's basketball team played one of its best all-around games of the season to snap a 10-game skid and hand visiting Monmouth a 65-51 defeat in Northeast Conference action on Thursday night.
Seniors Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) and Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring), and junior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) had outstanding contributions to help the Red Flash.
Ford tied a career high with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, had a career high six assists, and added three rebounds and a steal.
Nelson dished out nine assists, including several that were of the no-look variety, and figured in the box score with six points, two rebounds and a steal Nelson moved into sixth place on the school's all-time assists list with his sixth assist of the night. He passed Don Graham and Garrett Farha, and now has 327 career assists.
Sweetney recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and also contributed two assists, one block and one steal.
Junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) also had nine points, six rebounds, two assists and blocked a career high three shots.
Will Campbell came off the bench to score 21 points for the Hawks, and freshman Travis Taylor had 11 points and eight rebounds.
Saint Francis improved to 5-15 overall, and 2-8 in the Northeast Conference. The Red Flash will wrap up a two-game homestand with a 7 p.m. Saturday contest against Bryant, at DeGol Arena.
SFU led most of the way, and never trailed by more than two points. The Red Flash took a 29-25 lead into halftime, and extended that lead to 36-28 before the Hawks closed to within five points, 38-33, on a 3-pointer by Yaniv Simpson with 16:26 remaining in the game.
However, Saint Francis went on a key 12-0 run and held Monmouth without a point for five minutes, 24 seconds to stake its biggest lead of the game at 50-33 with 11:19 to go.
Ford, who was 4-of-6 from long distance, started the run with a 3-pointer, and Sweetney made a layup to make it 43-33. On back-to-back trips down the floor, Nelson hit junior Kurt Hoffman (Johnstown, PA /Greater Johnstown ) (Johnstown, Pa. / Johnstown) and Sweetney, respectively, with no-look passes on the run for fast-break layups to extend the lead to 47-33.
Senior Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) put an exclamation point on the 12-0 run with a 3-pointer to give the Flash their largest lead of the game, 50-33.
The Hawks never got any closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
The Red Flash shot 54.2 percent in the second half when they outscored Monmouth 36-26. They also had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, 21 to 13, for the second consecutive game.
Game Notes: Saint Francis had a season-high six blocks in the game; Sweetney now has four double-doubles on the season, all of which have been Red Flash wins; Sweetney tied a career high with eight field goals; Ford tied a career high with seven field goals, and had a career high with four 3-pointers; The 14-point victory was Saint Francis' largest margin of victory since a 72-56 win over Long Island on Feb. 24, 2007.
