LEWISBURG, Pa. (Nov. 21, 2009) – After falling behind early, the Saint Francis men's basketball team couldn't get over the hump in a frustrating 70-58 loss against Bucknell, on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion.
Senior Patrick Behan led the Bison charge with 20 second half points to finish with game-high 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Senior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) finished with 16 points, four rebounds and two assists, and freshman Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) (Cleveland, Ohio / Lutheran East) tallied 11 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two assists for the Red Flash. Freshman Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) (Chesterfield, Va. / Fork Union Military Academy) added nine points and eight rebounds.
Saint Francis dropped its third straight game to fall to 1-3 on the year. The Red Flash will return to action when they play host to Lehigh, beginning at 7 p.m., on Wednesday night at DeGol Arena.
“We made some progress tonight,” said Saint Francis second-year head coach Don Friday. “When we got here, I asked our kids to accomplish three things tonight. I asked them to play hard, to execute on offense, and to compete on defense. There has never been a shutout in college basketball, and there wasn't one tonight. We'll hang our hat on that.”
Cold shooting by the Red Flash allowed Bucknell to pull out to an early lead. Sweetney made a pair of free throws to open the game, but the Bison scored eight straight points on four buckets by four different players. It wound up being Saint Francis' only lead of the night as Bucknell answered with a 9-0 run and held SFU without a point for nearly six minutes to take a 19-6 lead. Junior Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden / Solebury Prep) stopped the bleeding with a free throw and had four points during a 12-3 Red Flash run that cut the lead to 22-17, with 4:11 remaining in the half. However, the Bison closed the half on an 8-3 run to take a 30-20 lead into the break.
Saint Francis shot just 23.3 percent in the first half, making 7-of-30 shots. Sweetney had a game-high 10 points at the break. Bryson Johnson had a team-high seven points for the Bison, who shot 37.5 percent (12-of-32) in the period.
The Red Flash had a 26-22 edge in rebounds in the first stanza, with Ervin leading the way with six.
Bucknell came out of the break with five straight points to take its largest lead of the night, 35-20, just 2:20 into the second half. Joe Willman made a layup with 13:12 to play in the game when the Red Flash made a run. Freshman Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) (Newport News, Va. / Denbigh) started it with a 3-pointer in front of the SFU bench. Saint Francis would score 10 of the next 12 points, all by freshmen, to pull within two points, 45-43, with 10:08 remaining.
But Bucknell again pulled away with a 7-0 run and the Red Flash wouldn't get any closer than five points the rest of the way.
After struggling in the first half, the Red Flash shot 50.0 percent (14-of-28) from the field in the second stanza. They finished 21-of-58 (36.2 percent) on the night, and were outrebounded 43-39.
The Bison made 26-of-65 attempts for 40.0 percent, and shot just 2-of-16 (12.5 percent) from outside the three-point stripe.
Game Notes: SFU's 70-58 loss snapped a two-game win streak against the Bison; Senior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) jumped three spots into 24th on Saint Francis' all-time scoring list. He now has 1,139 career points; Freshman Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) (Cleveland, Ohio / Lutheran East) had three blocks, the first three of his career, and fell one rebound shy of his first career double-double; Wednesday's home game against Lehigh will mark the fourth against a Patriot League opponent this season; Head coach Don Friday returned to Bucknell for the first time since serving nine years as an assistant under legendary head coach Pat Flannery, who retired after the 2007-08 season.
