EMMITSBURG, Md. – Taking advantage of a short Saint Francis bench, the Mount St. Mary's men's basketball team subbed regularly and ran a high-tempo offense to hand the Red Flash a 93-63 defeat in front of 2,812 fans on Saturday night at Knott Arena.
Junior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) notched his sixth double-double of the season, and 13th of his career, to pace the Red Flash with 21 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Senior Marquis Ford (St. Petersburg, FL /St. Petersburg) (St. Petersburg, Fla. / St. Petersburg) reached two career milestones in the game. He finished with 15 points, four assists and three rebounds, and went over 800 career points and 300 career assists. Senior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, IL /Palatine) (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) tallied 11 points and two assists and tied a career high with three steals.
SFU played without senior Kyle Jackson (Bolingbrook, IL /Plainfield Central ) (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Plainfield Central), junior Chris McFarland (Montgomery Village, MD /Riverdale Baptist) (Montgomery Village, Md. / Riverdale Baptist) and sophomore Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) (Gothenburg, Sweden / Solebury Prep) due to various reasons, and seniors Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) and Steve Profeta (Carnegie, PA /Chartiers Valley ) (Carnegie, Pa. / Chartiers Valley) fouled out, leaving the Red Flash with just six players to finish the game.
Jeremy Goode finished with 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds, Jean Cajou added 19 points and four assists, and Kelly Beidler added 18 points and five rebounds for the Mount.
Saint Francis will conclude the 2008-09 season with a pair of home games this coming weekend at DeGol Arena. First-place Robert Morris will visit for a 7 p.m. game on Thursday, and Fairleigh Dickinson will close out the season with a 7 p.m. contest on Saturday.
Jukic won the opening tip and gave the Red Flash the early lead with a layup, but the Mount scored eight unanswered points off jumpers from Beidler and Atupem, and a rare four-point play by Cajou, to take the lead for good.
At the other end of the floor, Jukic, who was fouled in the act of shooting, received a long pass from Ford in transition for another layup. He completed the three-point play to pull SFU within 8-5. A jumper from Mitchell and a Goode 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 13-5 for the Mount. But SFU got a pair of free throws from Nelson, who then had a steal and a great pass to Sweetney for an easy dunk to cut the lead to 13-9.
However, Goode drew Nelson's second early foul and made a pair of free throws to spark a 10-0 run to give the Mount a 23-9 lead.
Surprenant entered the game for the first time and sunk a 3-pointer that stopped the run, and helped Saint Francis to a 7-2 run to pull within 25-16.
SFU kept pace and was down 27-19 when the Mount went on another 8-2 run to pull away for good. Cajou completed the run with 3-pointer to make it 35-21 with 9:39 remaining in the first half, forcing the Red Flash into a timeout.
Sweetney fell one rebound shy of a double-double in the first half with 14 points, nine rebounds, one block, one steal and one assist. Jukic added seven points and three rebounds.
Goode had 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, and 6-of-7 free throws, to lead all scorers in the first half. He added five assists and three steals, while Cajou made 4-of-6 attempts from long distance for 13 points and Beidler tallied seven points and three rebounds.
Sweetney averaged 28.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.5 apg and 1.0 spg on the weekend.
