LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis men's basketball team won its NEC opener over Wagner on Saturday afternoon at DeGol Arena, 73-65. It's the Flash's sixth win in its previous seven NEC home openers. Five Saint Francis players scored in double figures, led by Greg Brown (Odenton, Md./Archbishop Spalding)'s 19 points.
 
The Red Flash (5-7, 1-0) led for the final 29:47 of the game, and a 7-0 run when the score was tied at 15 gave SFU the lead for good. Brown scored four of the seven points on the run. His layup with 6:15 left in the half capped the stretch. During that run, SFU kept Wagner off the board for 5:01. The lead reached its first-half apex of nine when Ben Millaud-Meunier (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier) hit a three pointer to make it 29-20 with 3:10 left. Millaud-Meunier finished with 10 points, his eighth double-digit scoring performance and sixth in his last seven.
 
The Flash finished the first half shooting 50 percent (12-of-24) to Wagner's 32.1 percent. SFU matched that by shooting 50 percent (14-of-28) again in the second half. That gave the Flash its first game of shooting at least 50 percent in each half since its win over Bryant on Jan. 29 of last season. It's also SFU's first game of shooting 50 percent overall since its win over Mount St. Mary's in the NEC Tournament quarterfinals last year.
 
Though it never took the lead, Wagner had the SFU advantage cut to a single point on two occasions in the second half. Michael Carey's layup with 9:53 to play in the game capped a 7-0 Wagner run to slim its deficit to 48-47. That would be Wagner's last field goal for the next 5:23. SFU held Wagner to just four free throws in that time as it slowly built its lead to a game-high 11 points at 62-51 before Mike Aaman's layup with 4:30 left in regulation.
 
Ronnie Drinnon (Jamestown, Ohio/Greenview) hit his second three pointer of the game during that stretch. He finished with 12 points and five rebounds. The two three pointers are a season and tie his career high that he set at Dayton in Nov. 2013.
 
The Flash forced 14 Wagner turnovers, including six offensive fouls on the Seahawks. Five of those came in the first half.  SFU also held Wagner to just 19 percent (4-for-21) from three-point range. It's the second time in three games that the Red Flash's NEC-leading three-point defense held an opponent to less than 20 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Basil Thompson (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) came one point shy of tying his career high in scoring with his 14 points. Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte) was the fifth Red Flash scorer to reach double figures. He finished with 12 points for his fourth double-digit scoring effort in his freshman season.
 
SFU will look to improve to 2-0 in NEC play when its hosts Sacred Heart on Monday at 5 p.m. as the first game of a doubleheader with the schools' women's teams. The Pioneers were also victorious in their NEC opener, defeating Robert Morris, 69-65.