MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Seniors Grant Surprenant (Palatine, IL /Palatine) (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) and Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) tallied 12 and 10 points, respectively, but the Saint Francis men's basketball team didn't have an answer for Robert Morris' Jeremy Chappell in a 78-60 defeat in Northeast Conference action on Saturday at the Sewall Center.
Chappell made 9-of-15 field goal attempts in scoring a game-high 23 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Surprenant made 5-of-9 field goal attempts to score his 12 points in going over the 500-point mark for his career, and Profeta made 3-of-5 attempts for a season-high 10 points to go with two steals. Sophomore Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden / Solebury Prep) had four points and a career-high eight assists in a career-high 28 minutes.
The Red Flash dropped their fourth straight game to fall to 4-9 overall, and 1-2 in league play. Robert Morris evened its record at 7-7 and improved to 2-1 in the NEC. Saint Francis will wrap up a six-game road trip with games at Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
The Colonials were able to make 29-of-52 field goal attempts for a 55.8 percent success rate, and held a 33-19 edge in rebounds. They also made their first 12 free throw attempts and finished 13-of-14 at the charity stripe.
SFU, who leads the NEC in free throw shooting proficiency, made 11-of-14 free throw attempts (78.6 percent), and had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio of 17 to 14.
Senior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, IL /Plainfield Central ) (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central) made the first bucket of the game to give Saint Francis a 2-0 lead. Chappell answered with a 3-pointer and junior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) made a jumper to put the Red Flash up 4-3 with 18:45 to go in the first half.
However, Robert Morris went on a 9-0 run over the next 3:37 to build a seven point lead. Trailing 19-11, SFU went on a 5-0 run to pull within three points, 19-16, with 10:26 to play in the first half. But that's as close as the Flash would get the rest of the way.
The Colonials went on another 8-0 run to build an 11-point lead, 27-16, and would build their lead as big as 15 points en route to a 44-31 halftime lead.
Saint Francis cut it to nine points, 46-37, with 18:08 remaining in the game, but a 20-8 run gave RMU a commanding 66-45 lead with 9:26 left. But the Red Flash weren't done, and were able to mount a 13-4 run of their own that put some doubt into Robert Morris to make it 70-58 with 2:43 remaining. The Colonials answered with a 6-0 run that put the game out of reach.
Senior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) scored all nine of his points in the first half and added two assists to give him 290 for his career. Jackson and senior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) both had eight points. Jukic added four points, five rebounds and two blocks, which tied a career high.
