FAIRFIELD, Conn.  (Jan. 27, 2011) – Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) had a career-high 30 points to help the Saint Francis men's basketball team overcome a 10-point second-half deficit in an 88-86 overtime victory at Sacred Heart on Thursday night.

 

The Red Flash won their fifth straight game to improve to 7-13 overall, and 5-4 in the Northeast Conference. They will head to Quinnipiac for a 2 p.m. battle on Saturday. That game can be heard live on The EDGE 850 AM (Johnstown) throughout, and will be joined in progress on The EDGE 1400 AM and www.myedgeradio.com at the conclusion of the SFU women's basketball game.

 

Shannon, who is the reigning Choice Hotels Northeast Conference co-Player of the Week, made a career-high five 3-pointers and had 19 of his game-high 30 points in the second half and overtime. He was 8-of-16 from the field, 5-of-9 from downtown and 9-of-12 from the free throw line. Shannon recorded his fourth straight 20-plus point performance.

 

Sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) had 13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal. He moved past Jeff Hamilton (1981-85) for 11^th on the school's all-time blocks list with 53. Sophomore Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) added 11 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds, and freshman Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks in just 18 minutes.

 

Shane Gibson paced the Pioneers with 22 points, while Jerrell Thompson added 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Sacred Heart fell to 8-12 overall and 3-6 in the Northeast Conference.

 

“This is a great win for our program,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “What I'm most proud of is that Sacred Heart punched us in the mouth a little there in the second half, and we responded. The ending to regulation was disappointing, but we bounced back again. It shows that our team is making strides.”

 

The Pioneers took their largest lead of the game, 55-45, on Chris Evans' layup with 14:38 remaining.

 

However, Shannon sparked SFU's offense in breaking a nearly 20-minute personal field goal drought when he nailed a 3-pointer in front of the bench to cut it to seven. The Red Flash got a defensive stop and sophomore Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) hit Shannon for his fifth 3-pointer of the night from the opposite corner to cut it to 55-51.

 

Thompson answered with a 3-pointer of his own to make it a 58-51 contest. But after the Pioneers got a defensive stop, Shannon stole the ball from Thompson and fed Eatherton for a breakaway dunk to make it 58-53. Ervin then came up with a defensive rebound and went to the corner in from of SFU's bench and, after faking a pass to force the defense away from him, nailed a 3-pointer to cut it to 58-56.

 

The team's traded buckets over the next five minutes when Stan Dulaire made a pair of free throws to give Sacred Heart a 66-63 lead with 6:43 to play. A jumper by Shannon and a free throw by Felder tied it at 66-66.

 

Gibson made a layup to give the Pioneers a brief 68-66 lead, but Saint Francis answered with six straight points, two each by Eatherton, junior Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) and Johnson, to give the Red Flash a 72-68 lead with 2:16 to play.

 

The Red Flash held a four-point, 75-71, lead after Shannon made one free throw on a 1-and-1 with 28.6 seconds left. Thompson raced to the other end and cut it to 75-74 on a 3-pointer with 20.7 seconds remaining.

 

Gibson picked up his fourth foul with 19.9 seconds to go, giving Shannon the opportunity to sink two to make it 77-74. Gibson drove the left side and appeared to draw his fifth foul on a charge drawn by Eatherton. However, the foul was called on Eatherton as Gibson made the layup and completed the 3-point play to tie the game at 77-77 with 15.9 seconds left.

 

Shannon missed a jumper from outside the free throw line as the buzzer sounded to force overtime.

 

Freshman Kameron Ritter came down with the opening tip to start the second half, and Johnson found Eatherton for an easy layup to spark a 5-0 Red Flash run to open the extra stanza. Eatherton got a defensive rebound and Shannon completed a 3-point play to make it 84-77 with 4:10 to go.

 

The Pioneers pulled to within two, 86-84, with 20.9 seconds left on a Thompson layup. Shannon sank 1-of-2 free throws with 18.9 left, and Taylor made 1-of-2 with 2.0 seconds remaining to make it 88-86. Sacred Heart missed a desperation 3-point attempt from well beyond mid-court as the buzzer sounded to give Saint Francis its first road win of the season.

 

Eatherton (5-of-6) and Taylor (4-of-5) combined to go 9-of-11 from the field. Taylor had 9 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block. Ervin also added 9 points, and sophomore Tony Peters (Roselle, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) had 6 points and 2 rebounds.

 

Saint Francis shot 50.0 percent in the game (33-of-66), and made 8-of-20 (.400) attempts from outside the arc. Sacred Heart shot 48.5 percent (32-of-66) from the floor.

 

The Red Flash led by as many as eight points in the first half, but Sacred Heart used a 10-0 run during a late run that spanned 2:37 to turn a 35-30 deficit into a 40-35 lead. The Pioneers took a 43-39 lead into the break behind 12 first half points from Gibson.

 

Shannon paced SFU with 11 first half points.

 

Saint Francis shot 50.0 percent (15-of-30) in the first half, but SHU fired at a 55.2 percent (16-of-29) clip to take the lead. SFU had five first half turnovers, while the Pioneers had just three.

 

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