LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 15, 2010) – Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) (Atlantic City, N.J. / Atlantic City) had a career-high 23 points, and sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) (Cleveland, Ohio / Lutheran East) had two key blocks in the final minute, to help lead the Saint Francis men's basketball team to a thrilling come-from-behind, 69-66, victory over Colgate on Monday night at DeGol Arena.

The Red Flash trailed by as many as nine in the final eight minutes, and outscored the Raiders 11-1 in the final 2 minutes, 37 seconds to even their record at 1-1 on the season. SFU will hit the road for a 7 p.m. contest on Wednesday night at Lafayette.

Shannon, who was 6-of-11 from the field and a career-best 8-of-10 from the charity stripe, also tied a career high with 4 rebounds and added three assists to go with his game-high 23 points. Felder fell one rebound shy of his second career double-double with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks. Senior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) contributed 12 points, 4 rebounds and a career-high 5 assists.

I think that this game went exactly as we prescribed it was going to go,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “It was going to be a very physical, tough grind-it-out game. I've seen Colgate play an awful lot, and we had a chance to play against them when I was at Bucknell University. The style that coach Emmett Davis employs is they are a very possession oriented team. They get good shots every time up and down the floor. They got those big horses inside that they bump and grind you. They high-low you, and they put shooters around it… I thought that our purpose and execution were much better tonight. In the last eight minutes, we were really able to execute things that we talked about in timeouts.

“This was a really well balanced team win tonight.”

Joe Hoban gave the Raiders a 65-58 lead with a 3-pointer from the right elbow with 2:56 remaining. However, Saint Francis' defense buckled down and didn't allow a field goal the rest of the way.

John Brandenburg made the back end of a pair of free throws with 1:35 left to give Colgate a 66-62 lead. But Shannon drove to the hoop off a designed back-door pass from Jukic for an easy layup to cut it to 66-64 with 1:23 left.

Colgate's Yaw Gyawu, who had 18 points and 5 boards, had a good look at the basket with 55 seconds to go, but Felder blocked it and the shot fell short into the hands of senior Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden / Solebury Prep). Orandi rushed down the court and found a wide open Shannon in the left corner for a 3-pointer to give the Red Flash a 67-66 lead with 42.9 seconds remaining, their first lead since there was 16:33 remaining in the game.

“I was wide open, so I knew I had to knock it down,” Shannon said.

Nursing the slim one-point advantage, Felder again blocked a Gyawu shot, this time with 23 seconds left, as Shannon came down with the rebound. Shannon was fouled and drained two free throws to give Saint Francis a 69-66 lead with 21.1 seconds remaining.

Mike Venezia missed a 3-point attempt before the buzzer to seal the victory for the Red Flash.

Saint Francis shot 42.6 percent from the field (23-of-54), and 75.0 percent from the foul line (18-of-24), and had a 36-30 rebounding advantage, which included 13 on the offensive glass. The Red Flash also blocked seven shots, including two by athletic freshman forward Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) (Hershey, Pa. / Hershey).

Saint Francis led most of the first half and into the first four minutes of the second period. However, Colgate (0-2) used an 11-2 run, capped by a Yaw Gyawu free throw, to take a 55-46 lead with 8:14 remaining in the game. The Raiders kept SFU had arms length until its 11-1 run to end the game.

For periodic men's basketball updates on Twitter, follow Director of Athletic Communications Bob Volkert at SFUVolkert.