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LORETTO, Pa. (Jan. 18, 2012) – The Red Flash men's basketball team returns to the road Thursday with a 7 p.m. tipoff against Monmouth in West Long Branch, N.J.
 
FLASH FACTS
- Saint Francis enters Thursday's game still looking for its first road win of the season. Overall the Red Flash are on a 10-game losing skid in road contests and have not won away from DeGol Arena since Jan. 21, 2011.   
 
- In league action this season, Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) ranks as the only player in the NEC in the top five in shooting percentage, scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.
 
-Eatherton leads SFU in scoring, averaging 14.4 points per game but in league action his average rises to 17.7 points per game and his rebounds per game go from 6.6 overall to 8.8 in NEC action.
 
- Kameron Ritter continues to progress at the point guard position and posted career-highs in points with 24 and tied a career-high with five assists against Quinnipiac.
 
- Ritter also rates as one of the top thieves in the conference ranking second in league play in steals as the junior has 13 thefts in the last three games.
 
- SFU has struggled on the road to a 0-9 mark while Monmouth holds a 2-3 mark on their home floor and a 1-13 mark away from the MAC (Multipurpose Activity Center, 1-10 road, 0-3 neutral).
 
- Since their meeting on Dec. 1, The Red Flash have posted a record of 3-7 with two wins in league play, while the Hawks own a 3-9 mark with just one conference victory.
 
- The Red Flash enter Thursday's contest averaging three points fewer a game than the Hawks but Monmouth gives up on average 13 point more a game than Saint Francis.
 
- Saint Francis brings the second best shooting percentage in the Northeast Conference (45.9-percent) to West Long Branch, N.J. while Monmouth sits last in the NEC in field goal percentage (40.1-percent).
 
- Jesse Steele enters the weekend as the leading scorer for Monmouth averaging 12.0 ppg while Ed Waite leads the Hawks in rebounding with 5.9 rpg. Eatherton leads SFU in both categories with  14.4 ppg and 6.6 rpg.
 
- Eatherton stands as the only player in the Northeast Conference shooting better than 57-percent on the season. The sophomore enters the weekend with 65.5-shooting percentage which ranks fourth nationally, just ahead of Indiana's freshman star Cody Zeller.
 
- In his last three games, Ritter has shot up the steals chart with 13 in his last three contests. The junior guard had just 10 swipes in his first 13 games. In league match ups, Ritter ranks second in the NEC with 2.33 steals a contest.
 
SFU VS. MONMOUTH
The Red Flash holds an all-time record of 20-33 against the Hawks with wins in two of the last three games between the schools. In the last ten meetings, Monmouth holds the advantage as winners of six. The two teams have already met once this season with SFU pulling out a 71-49 victory.
 
LAST TIME THEY MET
The Hawks and the Red Flash met once already this season in Loretto with SFU notching a 71-49 win led by 16 points from Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) and 13 points off the bench from Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy). In the Dec. 1 meeting, SFU shot 60.5-percent from the field and 70-percent in the first half and held the Hawks under 30 points in each half as the Flash picked up its biggest win of the season. SFU's tough defense kept all of the Hawks out of double-digits.
 
RITTER STUFFS THE STAT SHEET
Kameron Ritter continues to improve as the season progresses for the Red Flash. The junior posted one of his best all around games against Quinnipiac with a career-high 24 points and tied a career-high with five assists while adding three steals, a pair of rebounds and a block on a shot with less than 10 seconds left that would have tied the game. In the contest with the Bobcats, Ritter scored or assists on 46-percent of the Red Flash's field goals. In his last six games, Ritter has averaged 9.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 3.3 assists per game.
 
EATHERTON EMERGES AS ONE OF NEC's BEST
A season ago, Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) averaged nine minutes a game and just 3.9 points per contest. This season the sophomore from Hershey, Pa. has emerged as one of the top players in the Northeast Conference. The forward leads the Red Flash in both scoring and rebounding and ranks four nationally in shooting percentage. Eatherton ranks as the only player in league action to rank in the top five in scoring, field goal percentage, rebounding and blocks. Not even reigning NEC Player of the Year Ken Horton of CCSU boast such numbers. In league play, no NEC player has more offensive rebounds than Eatherton and the sophomore boasts these gaudy numbers averaging the 13th most minutes per game in league play.
 
BACK AND FORTH IN LAST FOUR
In the entire month of December, Saint Francis contests had just one tie and five lead changes in seven games. The last four games for the Flash have been much more hotly contested. Since returning to conference play Jan. 5 against CCSU there have been 30 ties and 32 lead changes in SFU's four games. Including a season high nine ties and 10 lead changes at Bryant. 
 
NEXT UP
The Red Flash returns to action Saturday with a 2 p.m. tipoff against Fairleigh Dickinson.