TEANECK, N.J. (Jan. 23, 2010) – The Saint Francis men's basketball team faced an eight-point deficit in the final minute and fought back for a chance to tie on the final shot, but a final 3-point attempt was released after the buzzer in a tough 78-75 defeat on Saturday night at Stratis Arena.
Senior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) had a team-high 19 points to go with 5 rebounds and 1 assist, freshman Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) (Cleveland, Ohio / Lutheran East) added 17 points, 7 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal, junior Cedric Latimer (Los Angeles, CA /Windward) (Los Angeles, Calif. / Windward) contributed 12 points and 4 rebounds, and junior Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden / Solebury Prep) had 11 points, a career-tying 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
The Knights were led by Mike Scott and Sean Baptiste with 20 and 19 points, respectively.
Saint Francis dropped its second straight game to fall to 5-14 on the season, and 3-5 in the Northeast Conference. The Red Flash will return to action at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday when they face St. Francis-NY, at DeGol Arena.
Fairleigh Dickinson (5-15, 4-4 NEC) took a 74-66 lead on Scott's free throws with 1:09 remaining, but the young Red Flash showed tremendous character in coming back.
Sweetney came down the court and made a pair of free throws with 49.2 seconds left to make it 74-68. Scott then missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Felder put back a dunk to cut the lead to 74-70 with 41.8 remaining. After getting fouled, Baptiste missed a pair of free throws, and Sweetney came back down to hit a big 3-pointer, his fourth of the game, to cut the lead to one, 74-73, with 27.0 seconds to go.
Scott made a pair of free throws with 25.7 seconds left before Felder hit another short jumper to make it 76-75 with 7.5 seconds remaining. No time went off the clock as Scott was fouled again before making two more free throws to make it 78-75 with 7.5 left.
That gave the Red Flash an opportunity to tie the game with the final shot of the game. Saint Francis came up, but couldn't get a look before Orandi found himself open on the wing. He released a shot that swished through the hoop, but he had released it just after the buzzer sounded, giving the three-point victory to the Knights.
“We showed a lot of character down the stretch,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “This was a win that we really needed, and it was a great effort on the road. But there are no consolation prizes. We need to win these games.”
The Red Flash tied a season-high with 13 three-pointers and shot 41.9 percent from the field. FDU shot 51.9 percent, while the Red Flash had a 36-34 advantage in rebounding.
