LORETTO, Pa. – A hot start from Fairleigh Dickinson set the Knights up with a lead throughout Thursday night's game against the Saint Francis men's basketball team on its way to a 71-59 victory over the Red Flash at DeGol Arena.
Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) recorded his fourth consecutive double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
After Drinnon's layup made it 8-7 FDU with 15:40 to play, the Knights went on a 21-3 run in the next five minutes to extend its lead to 29-10. The Knights started the game 10-for-13 (76.9 percent) from the field and 4-for-6 from three-point range. The lead reached its apex at 39-15 on an FDU layup with 2:57 left in the half. The Red Flash fought back to trim the deficit to 17 at intermission with a 10-3 run to close the half.
Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding) and
Basil Thompson (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) each scored four points in that stretch. FDU held a 42-25 lead at the break thanks in large part to converting 11 first-half SFU turnovers into 20 points.
"I thought the tale of the tape was our turnovers," head coach
Rob Krimmel said. "I didn't feel like we got into a flow offensively. Against a team like this, it's tough to play that way."
The Fairleigh Dickinson lead stayed in the teens for most of the second half, but the Flash continued to fight back. After Earl Potts, Jr.'s layup made it 54-38 FDU with 10:57 left in regulation, SFU managed to claw back to cut the margin to single digits. Five different SFU players contributed to the run.
Jamaal King (Salisbury, Md./Bishop O'Connell) and
Georgios Angelou (Halkida, Greece/Lykeio Kanithou) hit three pointers, and Brown's dunk made it 58-50 with 4:31 left. The Flash again pulled to within eight a minute later on a Thompson dunk, but FDU held off the Flash to move to 4-1 in NEC play. Saint Francis fell to 3-2 in the conference.
Brown had 13 points and four rebounds, and Thompson had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) had 11 points. SFU held FDU to just 1-for-8 from three-point range in the second half as it outscored the Knights, 34-29.
Saint Francis returns to action against Mount St. Mary's on Saturday at noon. The game will air live on Fox College Sports, MASN and ESPN3.
