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On Deck!
Saint Francis has a quick turnaround after a Monday night road game at Lehigh. The Red Flash will hit the road for the final game of a six-game road swing when it travels to?Ohio for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday night. The Red Flash have lost five straight games to fall to 2-7 overall, while the Bobcats are coming off a 66-56 loss against IUPUI on Sunday. Ohio enters with a 5-4 record on the season. The game can be heard live on The EDGE 1400 AM (Loretto) and www.myedgeradio.com.

History Lesson
The Saint Francis radio team of Bernie Jubeck and Joe Vesnesky love their history, so we dedicate this note to the voices of the Red Flash. Ohio University (referred to as OHIO or abbreviated as OU) is a public university located in Athens, Ohio, situated on an 1,800-acre campus. Founded in 1804, it is the oldest university in the Northwest Territory, and ninth oldest public university in the United States. The first permanent European settlers arrived in Athens in 1797. In 1800, the town site was first surveyed and plotted, but was not incorporated as a village until 1811. In the meantime, Ohio became a state in 1803. Previously part of Washington County, Ohio, Athens County was formed in 1805, named for the ancient center of learning, Athens, Greece. Athens did not receive city status until 1912 (in Ohio, 5,000 permanent residents are required to receive city status). Originally, large tracts of land (Athens and Alexander Townships) were set aside through a contract between the Congress (under the Articles of Confederation) and the Ohio Company of Associates, a group of Revolutionary War veterans. These lands were thus given to Ohio University by the Federal government. This was the first federal land grant for a university, pre-dating the Morrill Act by more than 70 years. The first three students enrolled at Ohio in 1808. Ohio University graduated two students with bachelor's degrees in 1815. In 1828, a free black man, John Newton Templeton, became one of the first African Americans to earn a college degree. The four years Templeton spent at Ohio University, in which he compiled a superior academic record and became an active member of the Athenian Literary Society, are chronicled in the stage play Free Man of Color by Charles Smith.

Series vs. Ohio
This will be the 10th meeting between Saint Francis and Ohio, but the first since the 2005-06 season. The teams met each other during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. The Red Flash upset the Bobcats 83-74 on Dec. 7, 2004. However, Ohio defeated SFU 77-61 on Nov. 26, 2005, to take an 8-1 lead in the series, which dates back to the 1959-60 season.

Sizing Up Ohio
The Bobcats come into Wednesday's game with a 5-4 record after a 66-56 Sunday loss vs. IUPUI. They are averaging 68.2 ppg, while opponents have tallied 73.1 ppg. D.J. Cooper has paced the Bobcats' offense with 18.0 ppg and 5.9 rpg, while contributing a team-high 60 assists and 25 steals. No other players average double digits in scoring, but Ohio boasts five players that average between 7.0 and 9.9 ppg. Reggie Keely has put up 7.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg and a team-high 9 blocks. The Bobcats shoot 39.4 percent from the field, while opponents are firing at a 45.1 percent clip.

Inside The Box Score
Saint Francis kept its turnover total to just 14, but couldn't contain a high octane Lehigh offense in a 79-61 setback on Monday night in Bethlehem. Here is a closer look and some notes from the box score:
- Saint Francis shot 32.3 percent from the field, marking the fifth straight game (all on the road) it shot below its season average (.404).
- The Red Flash were just 2-of-11 from outside the arc (.182), and are 11-of-58 (.190) over the past four games.
- SFU had a season-high with 17 offensive rebounds, and pulled down 38 boards.
- Saint Francis had season highs with 19 FTM and 29 FTA, marking the second straight game it reached double digits in both categories.
- The Red Flash had 14 turnovers, fewest in the team's past six games.
- Sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) had his second straight, and third career double-double, with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
- Senior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) matched a season-high with 21 points, one shy of his career high. His 10 FTM and 12 FTA were also career highs.
- Sophomore Tony Peters (Roselle, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) had a career-high 10 points, and career highs with 6 FTM and 10 FTA.
- Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) had career highs with 5 assists, 3 steals and 4 rebounds.

Rebounding Improvement
The Red Flash have seen a significant improvment in rebounding this season. Sophomore forward Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) leads the team with 7.7 rpg, which ranks fifth in the Northeast Conference. As a team, Saint Francis ranks sixth with 36.0 offensive rpg, third with 33.9 defensive rpg, and third with a plus-2.1 rebounding margin. During the 2009-10 season, the Red Flash finished 11th in offensive rebounds (30.7 orpg), 4th in defensive rebounds (34.0 drpg), and 10th in rebounding margin (-3.3).

3-Point Struggles
Saint?Francis had 203 three-pointers (6.77 per game) during the 2009-10 season, which was good for third in program history, and ranked second in the Northeast Conference with a 36.8 three-point field goal percentage. However, SFU has struggled from long distance so far this season. The Red Flash are averaging just 4.44 field goals per game from outside the arc, and rank 12th in the league with a 25.6 three-point field goal percentage. The Red Flash were just 2-of-11 from outside the arc (.182) against Lehigh, and are 11-of-58 (.190) over the past four games.

Growing Pains
As one of the youngest Division I teams in the country, Saint Francis may be suffering through some growing pains as head coach Don Friday is in the midst of a rebuilding process. With just 11 total years of Division I experience on the roster heading into 2010-11, most of SFU's minutes are being played by student-athletes with less than two years of experience. The five Red Flash sophomores have accounted for 61.7 percent (1110 of 1800) of the minutes played so far this season. Add in the six newcomers who have seen action, including junior transfer Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown), and 78.1 percent of the minutes played are being contributed by first or second-year Division I players.