GAME NOTES
On Deck!
Saint Francis clinched a Northeast Conference playoff spot with Thursday night's 84-78 victory over Wagner. However, the Red Flash will try to secure the league's seventh seed when Mount St. Mary's visits for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday at DeGol Arena. SFU improved to 9-19 overall and 7-10 in the NEC, while the Mountaineers are 10-20 overall, and 8-9 in the league. The game can be heard live on The EDGE?1400 AM (Loretto, Pa.), and a link to listen will be available at www.myedgeradio.com. Additionally, a live pay-per-view video stream is available via Red Flash All-Access at www.SFUathletics.com.
On The Horizon
Saint Francis will find out its NEC quarterfinal opponent following Saturday's league action. The Red Flash have clinched a playoff spot, and are currently in eighth place. However, a win over the Mountaineers would secure the No. 7 seed for next Thursday's quarterfinal round.
Playoff Picture
The Red Flash secured the eighth, and final, playoff spot in the Northeast Conference with their 84-78 victory over Wagner on Thursday night. Saint Francis will be the league's No. 7 seed with a win over Mount St. Mary's, while a loss would qualify the Red Flash as the eighth seed. SFU's playoff berth marks the second in as many years, and the program's 20th in 30 years.
Series vs. Mount St. Mary's
Mount St. Mary's earned a 63-56 victory over the Red Flash back on Jan. 6 to take a 35-28 lead in the all-time series with SFU. The Mountaineers have won 11 of the last 12 meetings between the schools.
Sizing Up The Mountaineers
Mount St. Mary's has lost four straight games and enters Saturday's game with a 10-20 overall record, and an 8-9 mark in the Northeast Conference. The Mount were selected in a preseason poll to finish fifth in the 12-team league. MSM is 11th in the league in scoring (60.6 ppg), but is fourth in scoring defense (allowing 66.4 ppg). Lamar Trice leads the Mount with 13.4 ppg and 86 assists and is second on the team with 28 steals. Shawn Atupem averages 10.5 ppg and 5.0 rg and has a team-high 29 steals. Trice has hit a team-best 58 three-pointers, while Julian Norfleet is second with 56 and averages 9.3 ppg.
Inside The Box Score
Saint Francis won its second straight game, 84-78 vs. Wagner, to clinch a Northeast Conference playoff spot for the 20th time in program history . Here is an in-depth look and some notes from the box score:
- SFU's 84 points represented the team's third-highest of the season (88 at Sacred Heart, 86 vs. Long Island).
- The Red Flash had four players - all sophomores - in double figure scoring (Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy), Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs), Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) and Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City)).
- Saint Francis improved to 5-6 with Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh), Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City), Kameron Ritter, Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs), and Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) as its starting five.
- SFU won for just the second time this season (2-15) when shooting a lower field goal percentage than it's opponent. Wagner shot 50.8 percent (30-of-59), and SFU shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57).
- The Red Flash pulled down 40 rebounds for the first time in the past 20 games.
- Saint Francis made 25-of-35 free throw attempts. The 35 attempts tied a season high, while the 25 made free throws are second-most in 2010-11.
- Sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) led the Red Flash in points (30), rebounds (13), blocks (3) and steals (2). His 30 pointers were a career high, and tied a team-high for the season (Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City)).
- Felder had career highs in points (30) and field goals made (12), and recorded his fifth double-double of the season (sixth career). He scored his 600th career point in the game, and moved into seventh-place on SFU's all-time blocks list (62). Felder's 36 blocks this season tied Jelani Lawrence (2005-06) for third-most in a single season at Saint Francis.
- Sophomore Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) had 13 points and a 6-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He tied a career high with six made free throws (on six attempts). Johnson now has 124 assists on the season, which is five shy of entering SFU's single-season list.
- Freshman Kameron Ritter tied career highs with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Garden State Grumpiness
The Garden State has not been good to the Red Flash, who snapped a combined 14-game losing streak in the state of New Jersey with their 77-65 win at Fairleigh Dickinson on Feb. 19. SFU had last won a game on Jersey soil on Feb. 27, 2003 with a 76-68 win at Monmouth. Saint Francis also snapped a 10-game skid in Teaneck, defeating the Knights at Stratus Arena for the first time since Jan. 21, 1999. Since the turn of the century, the Red Flash have a combined 2-19 record against Fairleigh Dickinson (1-10) and Monmouth (1-9) in Jersey.
Shannon is Shining
Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) continues to develop into one of the top scorers in the Northeast Conference. He is putting together a 2011 to remember in averaging 20.3 ppg and 3.3 rpg over his last 12 games. Shannon is shooting 51.8 percent from the field (72-of-139), 50.0 percent from long distance (39-of-78) and 81.3 percent from the stripe (61-of-75) during that time. He has reached 20 points in eight of the 12 games, including a career-high 30 points at Sacred Heart. Shannon's 67 three-pointers this season are 10th most for a single-season in program history, and are the most for a Red Flash player since Raahsaan Benton had 70 in 2005-06. Shannon made a career-high seven 3-pointers in the Feb. 19 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson. The seven 3-pointers are fourth most for a single-game in SFU men's basketball history, just two shy of a school record.
Draining Threes
The Red Flash sunk a season-high 14 three-pointers on Feb. 9, at Robert Morris. It marked the third highest 3-point field goals made in a single-game in program history, and the most since SFU made 15 on Jan. 21, 1992 vs. Mount St. Mary's. Saint Francis set a school record with 19 three-point field goals on Feb. 25, 1989 vs. Long Island. The Red Flash made 11 three-point field goals in a Feb. 19 win at Fairleigh Dickinson.
One Point Wins
With their 70-69 heartbreaking buzzer-beater loss against Bryant on Feb. 5, the Red Flash dropped to 19-11 all-time in one-point games at DeGol Arena. Saint Francis has a 308-194 record (.614) all-time at DeGol Arena, which opened in 1972-73.
Growing Pains
As one of the youngest Division I teams in the country, Saint Francis is 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 62.8 percent (3532 of 5625) 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 85.0 percent (4779 of 5625) 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 first/second-year players in 22 of its 28 games this season, and the five second-year players have contributed 3532 of 5625 possible minutes (62.8 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 1284 of 1827 points and have pulled down 473 of 886 rebounds, accounting for 70.3 percent of the team's offense and 53.4 percent of its rebounds.
Home Sweet Home
Despite a recent three-game home losing streak, the Red Flash have a .654 winning percentage at DeGol Arena over their last 26 games (17-9 record) dating back to a 78-59 season-ending victory over Fairleigh Dickinson on Feb. 28, 2009. SFU had a four-game home winning streak snapped against CCSU on Feb. 3, but has won 12 of its last 17 at home. Saint Francis will play host to Mount St. Mary's on Saturday in its final home basketball game on the season.
