Saint Francis Media Notes
TV: Big Ten Network  |  Online: BTN2Go  |  Radio: 1400 WWGE  |  Live Stats

LORETTO, Pa. - The Saint Francis men's basketball team hits the road to face No. 2/2 Maryland on Friday night in College Park. The game will air live on Big Ten Network at 7 p.m. Kevin Kugler will handle play-by-play duties and Dan Bonner will provide color analysis. The game, like every Red Flash game, can be heard on the team's flagship station, 1400 WWGE. 

Saint Francis moved back into the win column with an 84-73 victory over Lehigh on Wednesday night. Six Red Flash players scored points in the victory, and five of them hit double figures. Ben Millaud-Meunier (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier) led the way with 18 points in the win. He hit all four of his three-point attempts and all four of his free throws. He is fourth in the Northeast Conference, making an average of 2.33 three pointers per game. He's also first in the NEC and 12th in the nation in free throw percentage (93.1 percent). 

Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) (17), Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) (12) and Josh Nebo (Katy, Texas/Cypress Lakes) (12) scored in double figures among Red Flash starters. Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte) came off the bench to score 16 points. He accounted for all of SFU's bench scoring. Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) scored nine points as the only other Red Flash player to score. 

NOTES FROM LEHIGH

• Wednesday's game marked the first of the season in which the Red Flash won while losing the rebounding battle (34-33) and the points in the paint statistic (32-30).
• In addition to scoring 16 points off the bench, Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte) had a season-high four steals.
• The Flash moved to 3-0 at home for the second straight season and is now 17-5 at home dating back to mid-January, 2014. 
• The win for the Flash snapped Lehigh's nine-game winning streak in the series. SFU's last win came during the 1977-78 season.
• Freshman Josh Nebo (Katy, Texas/Cypress Lakes) recorded his season highs in points with 12 and blocks with three.

HOME COOKING

Saint Francis finished the 2014-15 season with a 10-3 home record, and all three of those losses either came by one possession or in overtime. The 10 wins at home in one season are the most since SFU won 11 in 2004-05. In his first two seasons at the helm, head coach Rob Krimmel was 8-18 at home. Including this year's three wins, the team is 13-3 at DeGol Arena since the start of last season and has won 17 of its past 22 home games.

TAKING ADVANTAGE AT THE STRIPE

Coming into this week's action, the Red Flash has scored 24.9 percent of its points from the free throw line, the highest percentage in the Northeast Conference. The national average for points from the free throw line is 20.9 percent. The Flash gets 49 percent of its points on two pointers and 26.1 percent on three pointers. Saint Francis is also not fouling its opponents. SFU commits the least amount of fouls in the conference with 111 through six games. 

NEC LEADERS IN SEVERAL CATEGORIES

Besides leading the Northeast Conference in fewest fouls committed, the Red Flash also leads the league in free throws made and three-point field goal percentage defense. SFU has made 106 free throws powered by the top two free throw shooters in the league. Ben Millaud-Meunier (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier) makes 93.1 percent of his shots while Basil Thompson (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) is shooting 88.9 percent from the stripe. On defense, SFU is allowing just 29.3 percent from opponents from beyond the arc, best in the league. SFU is also second in the NEC in field-goal percentage defense at 43.4 percent.

DRINNON'S DOUBLE-DOUBLE

Senior Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) recorded his first double-double of the season in the Flash's loss at UMES on Friday with 15 points and 13 rebounds. That's the sixth double-double of his career. He had three last season and two as a sophomore in 2013-14. Drinnon also hit his first three pointer of the season. 

BLACKMON BACK-TO-BACK

Freshman Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte) earned his third double-digit scoring performance with his 16 points off the bench in the Flash's win over Lehigh. He had 17 points against UMES last Friday. He's third on the team with a 12.0 points per game average. 

CRASHING THE GLASS

The Flash is third in the NEC and 67th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game, averaging 13.5. Josh Nebo (Katy, Texas/Cypress Lakes) is third in the NEC in that stat with 3.2 offensive boards per game, Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) is fifth with 3.0 per game.

ABOUT MARYLAND

The Terrapins enter Friday's game with the Red Flash ranked second in both the Asssociated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls with a 6-1 record. Maryland lost its first game of the season at No. 9 North Carolina, 89-81, on Tuesday night in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Melo Trimble had a double-double with 23 points and 12 assists in the game, giving the Terps its first points/assists double-double since 2008. Rasheed Sulaimon added 18 points, while Robert Carter raised his double-digit scoring streak to seven games with his 11 points.

Maryland is led by fifth-year head coach Mark Turgeon. This year's place at the top of the polls follows last season's school-record 26 victories. The Terrapins have four players scoring in double figures, led by Trimble's 16 points per game. Carter (12.7 ppg), Sulaimon (12.1 ppg) and Jake Layman (10.6 ppg) round out that group. 

Friday's game against Saint Francis will be the second of the season for Maryland against an NEC team. The Terps opened the schedule with an 80-56 victory over Mount St. Mary's. 

LOOKING AHEAD

The Flash plays next against Duquesne at the Cambria County War Memorial a week from Saturday following finals week. Following Saint Francis, Maryland heads to Madison Square Garden to face UConn in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday. It rounds out non-conference play against UMES, Princeton and Marshall before opening Big Ten play on Dec. 30 against Penn State. 

SERIES HISTORY

Friday's game marks just the second game between the two schools and the first in nearly 60 years. The two teams played in the Maryland Tournament on Dec. 30, 1955. Maryland won that game, 69-56.

KRIMMEL INTO 10th PLACE ON WINS LIST

Head coach Rob Krimmel moved into 10th place on the Saint Francis wins list with his 33rd career victory over American. Krimmel passed his predecessor, Don Friday, to move into the top-10. Friday coached the Flash from 2008-12 and finished with 32 victories. Krimmel is now eight wins behind Kevin Porter for ninth place. Porter came back to coach the Flash from 1983-87 following an outstanding playing career in Loretto. He had 42 wins in his four years.

BACK-TO-BACK BLOWOUT WINS

With SFU's 20-point victory over American on Nov. 21, the Red Flash won consecutive games by 20-plus points for the first time since the first two games of the 2006-07 season. Saint Francis opened that season with wins over Lock Haven (94-60) and Saint Bonaventure (76-54). SFU defeated Westminster, 103-72, before beating American, 68-48.

FLASH JUST SHORT ON NOVEMBER WINS MARK

Prior to last season, the Red Flash had won three games in the month of November just one time, in 1997-98. Saint Francis matched that feat in 2014-15 with wins over Keystone, UMES and Navy. SFU won two of its first three games this November, but losses at Kent State and UMES left the Flash one win shy of tying the 1997-98 and 2014-15 teams for the best Novembers in school history.

POSTSEASON SUCCESS

Last season, the Red Flash became the first team in school history to reach the Northeast Conference Tournament semifinals for the second consecutive season. In each of those two seasons, however, the Flash fell to the top-seeded team. Two years ago, SFU lost at Robert Morris, 60-57. Last season, SFU fell to St. Francis Brooklyn, 62-48. Despite the loss, Saint Francis still earned a bid to the CIT. In a first-round game, the Flash hosted Bowling Green. In that contest, the lead changed hands 13 times and the score was tied on eight occasions before the Falcons left Loretto with a 67-64 victory.    

A DECEMBER TO REMEMBER

December 2014 will go down as one of the most successful non-conference months in recent memory for the Red Flash. In a three-game stretch, Saint Francis defeated Albany, Duquesne and Rutgers. Albany was on its way to a 24-9 overall record and third straight America East Conference championship. The Flash earned its first win over Duquesne since 1990, snapping Duquesne's 11-game win streak in the series. It was also Saint Francis' first win at Duquesne since 1966, breaking a 16-game streak. Three days after the Duquesne victory, the Red Flash went to Rutgers and upset the Scarlet Knights, 73-68. The win was the first ever for a Northeast Conference school against a Big Ten opponent.

FLASH POINTS

• The Red Flash will face longtime rival Duquesne at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pa., on Dec. 12. The two teams have a long history in that building, including a Red Flash win over the second-ranked Dukes in 1955. 
• Saint Francis is scheduled to play two games on national television in 2015-16. SFU will face No. 2 Maryland on Big Ten Network on Dec. 4. SFU will also face NEC rival Robert Morris on ESPNU on Feb. 11.