BOX SCORE DENVER – Saint Francis matched Denver blow-for-blow in the second half of a New Year's Eve matinée but it wasn't even to undo the damage of a poor opening period as the Red Flash fell, 83-61, Tuesday.

Trailing 7-5, Denver used a 24-6 run which was capped by Jalen Love's tip-in off of a missed Marcus Byrd 3-pointer with 4:14 remaining in the first half to take control of the game.

The Pioneers (7-7), who took a 36-16 advantage into the break, finished the game 31 of 51 (60.8 percent) from the floor, 9 of 18 from behind the 3-point line and 12 of 12 from the free-throw line.

"I was a little disappointed in our focus," said Saint Francis coach Rob Krimmel.  "We went over some things in the scouting report and they burned us on some things that we knew were coming."

"You can't dig yourself a hole against a quality team like Denver.  We need to do a better job of executing our game plan, especially early on."

Wasted in the setback was yet another strong outing from junior Earl Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter), who scored a game-high-tying 20 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. 

After hitting on just 5 of 23 (21.7%) field goal attempts in the first half, the Red Flash rebounded to hit on 16 of 25 (64.0%) attempts in the second.  SFU committed only eight turnovers in the contest.

Sophomore Ben Millaud-Meunier (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier) chipped in 11 points, while Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) and Stephon Whyatt (Jersey City, N.J./St. Peter's Prep) each finished with nine.

Chris Udofia led the Pioneers with 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

The Red Flash (2-10) closes out its non-conference slate when it welcomes NJIT on Saturday.