Saint Francis University Athletics

LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis men's basketball team used a 23-3 run to open Thursday night's game against Central Connecticut State as the Red Flash cruised to a 74-63 victory over the Blue Devils at DeGol Arena. All five starters finished with double-digit scoring, and Earl Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) and Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) registered double-doubles.
 
The Flash opened the game shooting 9-for-13 and 5-for-5 from beyond the arc. During that stretch, the Flash had a 17-1 run. Ollie Jackson (Dallas, Texas/Pinkston ) hit a three pointer, and Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) hit two in a row from downtown to make it 23-3 with 12:30 left in the first. Jackson had 14 of his game-high 18 points in the first half including four three pointers. Harmon had all 11 of his points in the first half. He finished 3-for-4 from downtown.
 
The lead swelled to 25 with 2:01 left in the half on a pair of Earl Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) free throws. He finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds to give him his fourth straight double-double and fifth in his previous six games.
 
The Flash (14-10, 8-5) continued the barrage in the opening segment of the second half. SFU opened on a 9-2 run, fueled by five points from Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding). His three-point play with 15:53 to play capped the scoring run, pushing the lead to 49-21. He finished with 10 points.
 
The lead reached its crescendo on the most exciting play of the night. Earl Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) and Ben Millaud-Meunier (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier) executed a give-and-go alley-oop that finished with a Brown slam dunk. That gave SFU a 58-23 lead with 12:49 remaining.
 
Trailing by 35, CCSU made a push as it trimmed the deficit back into the teens by the under-four media timeout. The scoreboard mending came far too late for the Blue Devils to put any sort of game pressure on the Flash.
 
Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals. The win gives the Flash its first three-game winning streak against CCSU since 1996-98. 
 
The win moved the Flash to 9-1 at home. SFU hosts a big game on Saturday afternoon against LIU Brooklyn. The two teams met last Saturday, and LIU overcame a 12-point halftime deficit to defeat the Flash, 66-60, in Brooklyn.
 
Saturday is also Senior Day for Saint Francis. The team will honor its departing players in a ceremony just before the 1 p.m. tipoff.