LORETTO, Pa. (Feb. 24, 2011) – Sophomore
Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) scored a career-high 30 points and had a double-double to help the Saint Francis men's basketball clinch a Northeast Conference playoff spot with a thrilling 84-78 victory over Wagner on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.
Felder was 12-of-19 from the field for 30 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 2 assists to lead four Red Flash players in double figure scoring. Fellow sophomores
Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy),
Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) and
Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) added 14 points, 13 points and 12 points, respectively.
SFU clinched an NEC playoff berth for the second straight season by improving to 9-19 overall and 7-10 in the league. The Red Flash will wrap up the regular season with a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday night versus Mount St. Mary's.
Tyler Murray had a team-high 17 points, and Chris Martin added 16 points, for the Seahawks. Wagner fell to 13-15 overall, and 9-8 in the NEC.
“We're very fortunate to beat a great Wagner team coached by the great Hurley's, who are doing a helluva job turning around their program,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “Hat's off to them. They come in here and this was a big one for them. It was an even bigger game for us and we got it done.”
The Red Flash trailed by eight points, 32-24, with 1:42 remaining in the first half, but used an 8-0 run to tie the game at 32-32 heading into halftime.
Shannon hit his first bucket of the game, a 3-pointer from 25 feet to cut the deficit to 32-27. After Naofall Folahan missed a pair of free throws, Shannon found a wide open Ervin for a 3-pointer to cut it to 32-30, and Felder had an acrobatic offensive rebound and putback as the buzzer sounded to send the game to halftime deadlocked at 32-32.
“That's a huge lift,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “Now you go back and say, 'nothing-nothing to start the second half,' and the kids made plays.”
Saint Francis would never trail again as it took a 34-32 lead on a pair of Felder free throws to open the second half. Wagner tied the game on two separate occasions, including a 5-0 run to make it 39-39 with 15:15 to go.
However, SFU used an 11-3 run to seize control. Junior
Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) had 4 points, 5 rebounds and a block during the run that gave the Red Flash a 50-42 lead. Taylor finished with 8 points and a career-tying 8 rebounds.
After the Seahawks cut the lead to 55-50, Saint Francis reeled off another 6-0 run that ended with a Felder 3-pointer from in front of the bench for its largest lead of the night, 61-50, with 7:57 remaining.
Wagner again cut it to six, 63-57, with 6:02 left in the game, by Johnson found Felder for a highlight reel slam dunk, followed by a Johnson layup, to bring it back to 10, 67-57, with 4:28 left.
The Red Flash made 10-of-13 free throw attempts over the final 1:33 to put the game out of reach.
Felder scored his 600th career point in the game, moved into seventh on the school's all-time blocks list (62) and into a tie for third on the school's single-season blocks list.
“It felt good to get back into the flow of the game,” Felder said. “But I was still concerned about getting the win. It wasn't just about me and what I was doing. I was just trying to bring energy to the team so we could finish out the game.”
After Saturday night's regular season finale against Mount St. Mary's, the Red Flash will turn their attention to the Northeast Conference quarterfinals, which will take place next Thursday night at the site of the highest seeds.
“We made it to the playoffs,” Johnson said. “Not making it would have been a setback. This year, we are looking to win it instead of just going to the playoffs and losing in the first round.”
For periodic men's basketball updates on Twitter, follow Director of Athletic Communications Bob Volkert at SFUVolkert.
