LORETTO, Pa. – A closely played contest went against the Saint Francis men's basketball team in the opening round of the College Insiders.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) on Tuesday night at DeGol Arena. The Red Flash fell to Bowling Green, 67-64, in its first home postseason game in 24 years.
 
The score was tied eight times and the lead changed hands 13 times throughout the night. In the second half, neither team led by more than five. Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding)'s three pointer as time expired in the first half sent the Flash to the locker room with a 33-30 lead, and the Flash would hold that advantage for the first seven minutes of the second half.
 
Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) scored the first eight points of the second half for the Flash. His three pointer with 15:41 to play gave the Flash a 41-36 lead, capping his personal scoring streak. He finished with 18 points in 31 minutes.
 
"Coach has been telling me the whole game to be aggressive," Harmon said. "So if I have an open shot, I'll take it every time."
 
The Falcons came back with a 10-4 run to take the lead. The advantage flipped back-and-forth between the two schools for the remainder of the game. Earl Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter)'s fast break dunk capped a 6-0 run to give the Flash a 59-57 lead with 5:15 to play.
 
In his final collegiate game, Brown finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks. His 16 points moved him from 14th place to 11th place on the school's all-time list, finishing with 1,373 points. His eight rebounds left him just five boards shy of 10th place in the SFU record books, finishing with 792.
 
Dominique Major (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) gave the Flash its final lead of the night, nailing a three pointer to make it 62-61 SFU with 2:33 to play. Bowling Green came back with a pair of free throws on its next possession to retake the lead. The score stayed that way until the Falcons made a layup with 17 seconds to play. Down three, the Flash looked to set up a play for a quick three-point attempt, but Bowling Green forced a turnover and made two free throws to seal the victory.
 
"Give [Bowling Green] credit for coming in here and making plays down the stretch when they needed to," head coach Rob Krimmel said.
 
The Red Flash got off to a hot start, scoring the first seven points of the game. Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) scored the first two buckets on second chance attempts, and Harmon nailed a three to make it 7-0 SFU just over two minutes into play. Another three by Harmon a couple of minutes later gave the Flash its largest lead of the day, 12-4, with 15:18 remaining in the first half.
 
Bowling Green (21-11) used a 17-4 run over the next eight minutes to take its largest lead of the night, 21-15. Neither team had a lead of more than five points after that.
 
"Every possession counts in a close game," Krimmel said. "We only turned the ball over six times. If we go back and look at our 62 shots, I don't think we took any bad ones.
 
The Flash made five three pointers in the first half on its way to the three-point halftime lead, but went just 2-of-11 from behind the arc in the second half, finishing 7-for-26. Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) finished with 13 points and a team-high four assists. Drinnon had nine points and eight rebounds.
 
Saint Francis finished the season with a 16-16 record.