LORETTO, Pa.  (Jan. 13, 2011) – The Saint Francis men's basketball team had four players in double figures and tipped off a four-game home stand with a 70-54 win over Monmouth on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.

 

The Red Flash snapped an 11-game skid to improve to 3-13 overall, and 1-4 in the Northeast Conference. They will return to action when Fairleigh Dickinson visits at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

 

Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) had a team-high 15 points, while sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) had 13 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks, junior Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) had career highs with 12 points and 8 rebounds, and Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) pitched in with 10 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.

 

Mike Myers Keitt had a game-high 18 points to go with 8 boards for the Hawks, who also got 11 points from Ed Waite and 10 points from Marcus Ware.

 

“I'm really happy for our kids and I'm proud of the way our guys came out tonight,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “Monmouth is different because defensively it's really hard to simulate the way they play their match-up. As you saw us play these guys last year, we were paralyzed with their match-up zone. I thought in the first half that our guys answered the bell and they set the tone with the way we were going to play tonight.”

 

Saint Francis flew out of the gate by scoring 14 of the game's first 18 points, holding Monmouth to 1-for-7 from the field over the first 8 minutes, 32 seconds of the game. The Hawks would cut the lead to six points on two separate occasions in the first half, but the Red Flash answered each time. They took a commanding lead with a 7-0 run that gave them a 28-14 lead with 3:40 to play in the period. SFU closed the half on a 6-0 run to take a 38-19 lead into the break.

 

The 38 points scored represented a season-high for any first half this year, and the 19 points allowed represented a season-low for any opponent in any half in 2010-11.

 

Monmouth applied early pressure in the second half and cut it to 12, 46-34, with 14:25 still to play. However, Saint Francis answered with a 5-0 run and built a lead as large as 19, 60-41, to put the game away with 6:48 remaining.

 

“Our program, we needed a win,” Friday said. “It hasn't been very pleasant around here. It's been very tough. I know the amount of pressure that I felt, and I can only imagine what is on 18, 19, 20, 21-year-old guys' minds. By no means have we arrived. We've got a lot of work to do yet, but it's a hell of a lot better coming to work the next day when you know you got a 'W.'”

 

The Red Flash tied a season-high with 10 three-pointers, and shot 43.5 percent from outside the arc (10-of-23). They made 22-of-50 field goals on the night (.440), and sunk 16-of-20 (.800) at the charity stripe. SFU also forced the Hawks into nine of their 14 turnovers in the first half.

 

“(Turnovers) were a big part of it,” said Monmouth coach Dave Calloway. “Coming out I think our guys were trying to do too much instead of being patient and doing what we need to do.”

 

The Hawks shot just 12.5 percent (2-of-16) from long distance, and 34.5 percent (20-of-58) from the floor. They held a 38-31 advantage on the boards.

 

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