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On Deck!
Saint Francis (2-11) has closed out the non-conference portion of its schedule and will now head to Northeast Conference rival Mount St.?Mary's to begin the stretch run of league play. The Mountaineers have struggled against a difficult schedule, compiling a 3-12 mark heading into Thursday night's 7 p.m. game at Knott Arena. The game can be heard on The EDGE?1400 AM (Loretto, Pa.), and a link to listen will be available at www.myedgeradio.com

On The Horizon
After Thursday night's game at the Mount, the Red Flash will head to Staten Island to close out a four-game road swing with a Saturday evening contest at Wagner. It will be the final road game of a brutal stretch that included 12 of SFU's first 15 games away from Loretto. After their game against the Seahawks, the Red Flash will play four straight at home.

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. Emmitsburg was founded in 1785 and is in Frederick County, Maryland, just south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Emmitsburg was the site the Union had originally fortified to stop the Confederate invasion of the North in June 1863 during the Civil War. Half the town was burned to the ground in a mysterious fire on the night of June 23. Folklore has it that 'The Great Fire,' as it was known, was started by a Union sympathizer to prevent advancing Confederates from taking supplies from the town. However fate spared the town a battle between the opposing forces, which instead took place 12 miles north of it in Pennsylvania near the town of Gettysburg. The town was briefly held by the retreating Confederates on July 4.

Series vs. Mount St. Mary's
This will be the 63rd meeting between Saint Francis and Mount St. Mary's, and it will mark the 22nd straight year the programs have met. The Red Flash will be looking for revenge after the Mountaineers handed them a 65-50 loss in the Northeast Conference quarterfinals back in March. SFU won its home game against MSM last year, while dropping a pair of games at Knott Arena. Mount St.?Mary's has won 10 of the last 11 meetings between the programs, dating back to the 2004-05 season.

Sizing Up The Mountaineers
Mount St. Mary's dropped its eighth straight game  on Sunday afternoon to fall to 3-12 overall. The Mountaineers mustered just 11 first half points in a 99-34 loss at Virginia Tech. MSM is 1-10 away from home, but has put together a 2-2 mark in the comforts of Knott Arena. Mount St. Mary's is led by junior Lamar Trice, who is enjoying a breakout season by averaging 12.8 ppg,, 3.7 rpg, 3.1 apg, and 1.1 spg. Freshman Julian Norfleet has burst onto the scene by averaging 10.3 ppg, 2.7 apg and 2.4 rpg. Junior Danny Thompson is the team's leading rebounder, pulling down 5.1 rpg to go with 5.1 ppg and 1.3 bpg. Mount St. Mary's has struggled on offense, scoring just 58.6 ppg and has allowed opponents to tally 69.3 ppg. Opponents have a 38.0 to 32.4 rebounding edge against the Mount.

Inside The Box Score
Saint Francis closed out the non-conference portion of its schedule against national power North Carolina on Sunday afternoon. It marked 10th road game in 13 contests this season. Here is a closer look and some notes from the box score:
- The Red Flash got off to a solid start against the deeper Tar Heels, and trailed 32-23 with 7:39 to go in the first half. The Red Flash were outscored 20-10 the rest of the half.
- SFU made a season-low one 3-pointer on 15 attempts (.067).
- The Red Flash made just 22 field goals, and have made 22-or-fewer in five straight games, and six of the last seven.
- Saint Francis made 9-of-11 free throw attempts (.818), and are 21-of-24 from the charity stripe (.875) over the past two games.
- The Red Flash tied a season-high with 67 field goal attempts.
- The Tar Heels made 39 of their 66 field goal attempts (.591). Their 39 field goals and .591 shooting percentage were both season highs for SFU opponents.
- Sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) led the team in scoring for just the third time this season. He had game-highs with 18 points and 7 boards. He led the team in rebounds for the 10th time this season.
- Freshman Kameron Ritter made his first career start, and played a career-high 28 minutes. He had 3 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 assist.

Road Warriors
Saint Francis has played 10 of 13 games on the road, and will have played 12 of 15 away from DeGol Arena when it wraps a four-game road swing on Saturday at Wagner. SFU had a six-game road swing at the end of November and into December, and has now played eight of its last nine on the road.

Where's The Offense?
The Red Flash have struggled to find balanced scoring thus far in 2010-11. They are 10th in the 12-team Northeast Conference in scoring (59.5 ppg), and have yet to hit the 70-point plateau in 13 games this season. Sophomores Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) (13.2 ppg) and Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) (10.9 ppg), and senior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (9.8 ppg), have emerged as three consistent scorers on a nightly basis. Sophomores Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) (8.4 ppg) and Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) (6.8 ppg) have also shown the ability to put the ball in the basket. However, Saint Francis is looking for another dependable scorer or two to step up. Sophomore Tony Peters (Roselle, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) averaged 7.0 ppg over a four-game stretch before going scoreless against North Carolina, and senior Sorena Orandi (Vastra Frolunda, Sweden/Solebury Prep) averaged 8.1 ppg last season.

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 4.77 field goals per game from outside the arc, and rank 10th in the league with a 28.2 three-point field goal percentage. SFU was 21-of-49 (.429) from outside the arc in three games before hitting on just 1-of-15 attempts (.067) against North Carolina.

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 62.7 percent (1631 of 2600) 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 80.7 percent of the minutes played are being contributed by first or second-year Division I players.

Super Sophomores
As previously mentioned, Saint Francis' five sophomores are putting in significant minutes this season. SFU has started four freshman/sophomores in 10 of its 13 games this season, and the five second-year players have contributed 1631 of 2600 possible minutes (62.7 percent) thus far. Most of the team's production is also coming from the five players. Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs), Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh), Tony?Peters and Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) have scored 547 of 774 points and have pulled down 225 of 431 rebounds, accounting for 70.7 percent of the team's offense and 52.2 percent of its rebounds.