LORETTO, Pa.  (Feb. 3, 2011) – The Saint Francis men's basketball team rallied for a season-high 63 second half points, but fell short of a miraculous comeback in an 86-79 loss against Central Connecticut State on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.

 

Sophomore Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) paced the Red Flash with 27 points, while sophomore Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, and sophomore Chris Johnson (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) added 11 points and 3 boards to go with season-highs with 8 assists and 4 steals.

 

Ken Horton had a double-double for the Blue Devils, and Robby Ptacek and Shemik Thompson had 26 and 23 points, respectively.

 

Saint Francis dropped its second straight game to fall to 7-15 overall, and 5-6 in the Northeast Conference. CCSU remained in second place in the league with a 15-7 record and 8-3 mark in the NEC.

 

“Credit goes to Central Connecticut for coming out and throwing the first punch,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “But we came out on our heels and we didn't respond to it well at all. This is two straight games that we have come out like this and it's unacceptable. We've got to play 40 minutes, and we have to play better in the first half.”

 

Central Connecticut State came out with the hot hand, while the Red Flash hit just one of their first 12 field goal attempts. After SFU tied the game at 2-2 on a dunk by Felder, CCSU reeled off a 14-0 run and built a lead as large as 29-points, 41-12, with 3:30 left in the half. The Blue Devils held a 43-16 halftime advantage behind a 16-of-26 effort from the field (.615).

 

SFU shot just 5-of-21 (.238) in the first half, and made 1-of-12 from outside the arc.

 

But the young Red Flash came out with a vengeance in the second half and reeled off 63 points. Saint Francis methodically chipped away at the lead and pulled within nine, 59-50, on an offensive rebound and put-back by senior Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) with 6:47 left.

 

SFU made it a seven-point game, 63-56, when Shannon made a pair of free throws with 4:43 remaining. The Blue Devils got it back to a 12-point lead before Felder had a highlight reel offensive rebound and slam dunk to make it 71-62 with 1:40 to go. However, CCSU made 13-of-14 free throws over the final 58 seconds to put the game away.

 

Jukic finished with 8 points and 2 rebounds, sophomore Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) had 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, and junior Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) pitched in 5 points and 7 rebounds for the Red Flash.

 

SFU hit 23-of-42 field goal attempts (.548) in the second half and finished 28-of-63 (.444) for the game. The Blue Devils made 29-of-36 free throw attempts (.806) in the second half, and made 35-of-45 (.778) in the game.

 

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