LORETTO, Pa.  (Jan. 20, 2011) – Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) sparked an explosive second half Saint Francis offense to lead the Red Flash men's basketball team to its third straight win, 75-56, against St. Francis-NY on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.

 

Shannon had 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half and added a career-high 7 rebounds to lead four SFU players in double-digit scoring. He was 7-of-10 from the field, and 4-of-6 from long distance.

 

Saint Francis recorded its third straight double-digit victory to improve to 5-13 overall, and 3-4 in the Northeast Conference. The Red Flash will play host to first-place Long Island when it comes to DeGol Arena for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday night. The Blackbirds defeated Robert Morris, 83-67, on Thursday night to improve to 14-4 overall, and 6-1 in the league. They have won eight straight games.

 

“It's just what the doctor ordered,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “We needed the victory pill as we said before. Last Thursday night was a big win for our program against Monmouth and then again to come back against FDU. I don't want speak for our guys, but I think basketball is fun for them again. It wasn't too much fun there for a few weeks.”

 

Freshman Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) and sophomore Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) provided offense off the bench with a career-high 15 points and 13 points, respectively. Eatherton was 5-of-7 from the field and added 4 rebounds, while Ervin connected on 5-of-8 from the field. Junior Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) tied his career high with 12 points and pulled down 5 boards.

 

Sophomore point guard Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) had season highs with 8 assists and 3 steals to go with 5 points and 3 rebounds. During SFU's three-game winning streak, Johnson has a 21-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio.

 

Ricky Cadell had 16 points and 7 rebounds, and Akeem Bennett had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists for the Terriers, who fell to 8-10 overall and 3-4 in the NEC.

 

The first half was a game of runs as St. Francis-NY scored the first five points before Saint Francis responded with nine straight. A 6-0 Red Flash run led to a 22-12 lead. However, the Terriers went on a 19-2 run to end the half with a 31-26 lead.

 

St. Francis-NY scored the first bucket of the second half to take a 33-26 lead before Shannon got the hot hand. Sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) found Taylor for a layup to get SFU on the board in the second half. Shannon came up with a big defensive rebound and freshman Kameron Ritter converted it into a traditional 3-point play at the other end to pull the Red Flash within 33-31. Shannon then hit a 3-pointer from the elbow to give Saint Francis the lead for good, 34-33. Felder had an offensive rebound and put-back, and Ritter found Shannon for another 3-pointer to complete a 13-0 Red Flash run and force the Terriers into a timeout with 16:35 to go with SFU leading 39-33.

 

“I like the way our kids came back out after the halftime and responded to their run,” Friday said. “We had two stretches tonight where I don't think that we defended particularly well against St. Francis-NY. We had that one stretch that we went cold offensively and we went cold defensively. We started to get unraveled a bit, but I thought the coolness and calmness with some of our guys really showed through.”

 

St. Francis-NY pulled to within two points, 41-39, behind a couple of 3-pointers, but the Red Flash fired off a 16-0 run over the next 5:45 to build a 57-39 lead with under 10 minutes remaining. Shannon had seven points during the run and Eatherton and Ervin both completed 3-point plays.

 

“It was a lot of fun,” Eatherton said. “I think it had a lot to do with practice this week. I had a pretty good couple days, and our team had a couple pretty good days of practice, and it showed tonight.”

 

Saint Francis shot over 50.0 percent from the field for the second straight game, connecting on 26-of-50 field goal attempts (.520). The Red Flash made 6-of-15 (.400) from outside the arc, and 17-of-21 (.810) from the free throw line. SFU tied a season-high with 9 steals, and scored a season-high 75 points.

 

“We're in a pretty good situation right now,” Friday said. “If guys will accept their roles, and we execute, and we can continue to defend – and we have to get a lot better at that – we have a chance for this team to grow up and grow up in a real special way I think.”

 

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