LORETTO, Pa.  (Jan. 22, 2011) – The Saint Francis men's basketball team jumped out to a big first half lead and never looked back in defeating the Northeast Conference's first place team, Long Island, 86-71, on Saturday night at DeGol Arena.

 

Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) recorded his third straight 20-plus point performance by tying his career high with 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field.

 

The Red Flash completed a four-game home stand with a perfect 4-0 record to improve to 6-13 overall, and 4-4 in the Northeast Conference. They will return to action with a 7 p.m. tilt on Thursday night at Sacred Heart.

 

Sophomores Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) and Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) had 14 points and 11 points, respectively, and junior Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) pitched in with 10.

 

David Hicks paced the Blackbirds, who dropped to 14-5 overall and 6-2 in the NEC, with 24 points, while Jamal Olasewere and Kyle Johnson had 16 and 12 points, respectively.

 

“This was a huge win for our program,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “That's good basketball we played here tonight. If you're a basketball fan, and if I was a little kid and I came here and saw guys like Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) and Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City), I'd want to grow up and be like them too.”

 

Long Island brought an eight game winning streak, and an NCAA-leading eight road victories into DeGol Arena, but the Red Flash shot 49.0 percent from the field and had a season-high 10 blocks. The Blackbirds average an Northeast Conference-best 82 points per game, but SFU held them to 32.1 percent and 25 points in the first half.

 

LIU jumped out to a 5-2 lead on a 3-pointer by Johnson, but the three point lead would prove to be the biggest of the night for the Blackbirds. After jumping ahead 7-5 on a jumper by Olasewere with 15:12 to go in the first half, Saint Francis held Long Island without a field goal for the next 6 minutes, 45 seconds during a 18-2 run.

 

With a 34-18 lead, Ervin and Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) hit 3-pointers on back-to-back trips down the floor to give the Red Flash their largest lead of the night, 40-18, with 3:07 to go in the first half. SFU took a 44-25 lead into halftime.

 

“I don't think a lot of teams would have come in here and beat this team the way they played tonight,” said Long Island coach Jim Ferry. “And if they continue to play this way, I think people are going to have a hard time coming out here and winning games.”

 

The Blackbirds came out of the break with more intensity used a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 44-31 with 17:36 to play. They chipped away as SFU's lead dwindled to eight, 54-46, with 10:58 remaining. However, the Red Flash made 21-of-24 free throw attempts over the final 9:55 to secure the victory. Twenty-one of Saint Francis' final 29 points were scored at the charity stripe, and the Red Flash were 31-of-35 (.886) on the night.

 

“At the end there, we found out how to win and how to pull away,” Friday said. “And we found out how we're going to have to handle those end-of-game situations that will pay dividends for us further down the road in the playoffs.”

 

Shannon finished with 6 rebounds and 2 steals to go with his 24 points, and had career highs with 10 free throws and 11 free throw attempts. Ervin tied a career high with 8 rebounds, and added 3 assists and 2 steals. Johnson had 6 assists and 3 steals, and finished the four-game home stand with a 27-to-6 assist-to-turnover ratio. Sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) was 3-of-4 from the field and had 9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a career high 4 blocks. Senior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) had 8 points and 4 assists, and freshman Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) added 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.

 

The 86 points for the Red Flash marked a season high.

 

“I thought that they outplayed us in every single aspect of the game,” Ferry said. “We're a pretty tough, physical team. I thought that they out-toughed us today. I thought they were more physical than us today. I thought they were more aggressive than us today. I thought they played faster than us today.”

 

SFU matched its longest winning streak of four from a year ago, but has not won five straight since the 1993-94 season.

 

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