BROOKLYN – The Saint Francis men's basketball team was eliminated from the NEC Tournament at the hands of the top-seeded St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers, 62-48, on Saturday afternoon. The Terriers will now host Robert Morris in the NEC Championship on Tuesday night. Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) scored a team-high 18 points while Earl Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) added 12 points and 12 rebounds.

The Flash (16-15) entered the game as the fifth seed in the tournament, but it traded punches with the Terriers throughout the first half. A layup from Harmon and a high floater off the glass by Dominique Major (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) gave the Flash a 13-12 lead with 11:07 left. The Terriers (23-10) responded with a 15-5 run over the next nine minutes to take a 27-18 lead with two minutes to play in the half.

For a team like the Flash that hasn't blinked all season when faced with a deficit, those final two minutes felt like a comfortable reminder of past successes. Harmon completed a three-point play to cut the deficit to six with 1:45 to play. After a Terriers turnover, a Flash possession that didn't seem to get on track ended just fine as Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) nailed a three pointer as the shot clock expired. That made it 27-24 Terriers. Glenn Sanabria responded with a three of his own with 18 seconds left to make it a six-point game again.

That just set the stage for another big shot for the Flash. Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) found Harmon open in the right corner, and his shot as time expired was true to again cut the deficit to three, 30-27, at the intermission. The three pointers in the final minute from Brown and Harmon would be the only two makes for the Flash in the game.

"We felt great after hitting the last shot of the half," Harmon said. "We had the same mindset to go inside and attack the paint [in the second half]."

The Red Flash hung close through the first stretch of the second half. Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) hit shots on consecutive possessions to make it 37-33 Terriers with 14:24 left. But that would be the Flash's last points for four minutes. In that span, the Terriers went on a 9-0 run punctuated by Jalen Cannon's layup with 10:39 remaining to make it 46-33. Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) and Harmon each hit layups to get the lead back to single digits with 8:28 to play, but Brent Jones' three pointer with 8:01 left put the lead back in double digits for good.

"Certainly we are a team that relies on the jump shot a little bit, and we didn't have some shots fall for us," head coach Rob Krimmel said. "We missed a couple of shots close to the basket that opened up their lead. When they [don't fall], the game becomes a lot more difficult."

Drinnon finished with six points and seven rebounds. Basil Thompson (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) came off the bench to grab five rebounds in 12 minutes of action. Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) had seven points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Flash was competing in the NEC Tournament semifinals in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. This was also a team that defeated Duquesne on the road for the first time since 1966 and became the first Northeast Conference team to defeat a Big Ten program when it knocked off Rutgers on Dec. 20.

"I'm proud of our guys," Krimmel said. "They have set the bar high for the program."