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Saint Francis welcomes Fairleigh Dickinson to DeGol Arena on Saturday afternoon for the second game of a season-long four-game homestand.  Both teams enter on the heels of back-to-back wins as they square off in their respective Northeast Conference openers.

The Knights are 3-5 after a grueling early slate that included lopsided losses to Connecticut and Dayton but, more recently, wins over Buffalo (63-54) and Saint Peter's (55-46).  FDU downed the Peahens in Hackensack, N.J. on Tuesday.  The Knights, which were picked to finish seventh in the NEC Preseason Poll, are 1-3 on the road this season.

The Red Flash are within a game of .500 after back-to-back wins over Bucknell and Akron – both teams that SFU had not previously beaten under Susan Robinson Fruchtl's watch.  With a win, Saint Francis can improve to .500 after six games for the first time since Robinson Fruchtl's inaugural campaign.  SFU and FDU split regular season meetings in 2010-11, before the Flash ousted the Knights from the NEC Tournament in the quarterfinal round.

Saint Francis welcomes Monmouth to Loretto on Dec. 5, as it wraps up early NEC play.  The Hawks took both regular season meetings between the teams last year, but the Flash won the third contest to claim its 11th NEC title.



WILLIAMS EARNS FIRST PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOD
Forward Alli Williams (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) has been named Choice Hotels NEC Player of the Week.  A three-time rookie of the week selection a season ago, she is the first Red Flash player to earn the award in 2011-12.  Williams turned in back-to-back 25-point efforts to carry Saint Francis to its first two wins of the season last week. The sophomore averaged a double-double in victories over Akron and Bucknell, supplying 25.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 4.5 steals per contest.  Williams shot 55 percent (16-of-29) from the floor and 85 percent (17-of-20) from the charity stripe.

OFFENSE FINDING CONSISTENCY AT HOME
After a series of lackluster road games and, despite a 1-1 record at home, the Red Flash have turned in two of their more complete showings of the season at DeGol Arena.  SFU score 70 points in each of its home contests and has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in three of four halves.    

GIBBS COMING ON
Junior Nickia Gibbs (Greenbelt, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt) has stepped up for the Red Flash after stepping into the starting lineup in 2011-12.  The guard joins Alli Williams (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) as one of only two players to have started each game entering today's contest.  With a career average of 4.0 PPG, she is averaging 9.0 PPG this season and has three double-digit scoring outputs.

RED FLASH PICKED TO WIN THIRD STRAIGHT TITLE
The Northeast Conference Women's Basketball coaches have given Saint Francis University the moniker of NEC preseason favorite.  The two-time defending NEC champion Red Flash garnered four first-place nods in the poll of the conference's 12 head coaches.   Not since the 2004-05 season has the coaches' preseason favorite gone on to capture the NEC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament field.  Saint Francis was actually the last Preseason No. 1 to go all the way when it won the last of its nine titles over a 10-season span (1996-2005).

WATTS MAKES STRONG SFU DEBUT
After sitting out the 2010-11 season due to NCAA transfer rules, Rhonda Watts (Alabaster, Ala./Thompson) made an immediate impact in her first game for the Flash, throwing down 16 points against Duquesne.  Two games later she earned her first collegiate start.  Watts played her first two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth.  Prior to that,  she left Thompson High School as its all-time leading scorer with 1,757 points.  During her career, the Warriors won 72 games and two 6A Area Titles.  Watts averaged 17.4 ppg as a senior shot 94 percent from the free-throw line.

FREE THROW SHOOTING TRENDING UPWARD
After shooting just under 65 percent from the free throw line a season ago, the Red Flash has seen a notable improvement in the early goings of 2011-12.  SFU shot 89.5% (17-of-19) from the stripe against Akron on Nov. 22, besting its high-water mark from 2010-11 [88.2 % (15-of-17) at Toledo].

TAKE IT TO OT
The Red Flash are 4-0 in extra frames over the past two seasons, including 1-0 in 2011-12.  Under Susan Robinson Fruchtl, SFU is 6-4 in overtime.  All-time, the Flash sports a 14-10 record in OT.