LORETTO, PA- Saint Francis honored seniors Aisha Brock (Jacksonville, Fla./Potter's House Christian Academy), Brooklyn Taylor (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) and Brielle Ward (Baltimore, Md./Western (Hampton U)) prior to the game and gave them a proper send-off with a 72-64 win over LIU Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon at DeGol Arena. 

Jessica Kovatch (Phillipsburg, N.J./Phillipsburg) finished with 29 points, seven rebounds and three steals to lead the Flash on Saturday. Brielle Ward (Baltimore, Md./Western (Hampton U)) led the defensive charge with 11 rebounds and three blocks, the Flash blocked 12 shots on Saturday. 

The Blackbirds got off to a quick start on Saturday, leading for much of the first quarter. LIU feasted on the glass, scoring seven second-chance points in the opening frame and 21 for the game. SFU trailed by as many as six before an Aisha Brock (Jacksonville, Fla./Potter's House Christian Academy) lay-in brought the deficit to four at 18-14 at the quarter's end. 

Back-to-back Maya Wynn (Reisterstown, Md./McDonogh) three's brought the Flash even in the opening stages of the second, it was the sophomore's only two threes of the game as she scored 10 of her 12 points in the frame. LIU answered Wynn's triples with an 8-2 run to reclaim their six-point cushion. The Flash would chip away at the lead the rest of the quarter, a Katie Reese (Boonton Township, N.J./Mountain Lakes) three cut the lead in half and back-to-back buckets by Wynn gave SFU their first lead of the game at 31-30 with 47 seconds left in the half. For the second-straight quarter, Brock closed out the scoring, hitting a pair of free throws with just seconds remaining to send SFU into the intermission with a 33-32 lead. 

The Red Flash used a 7-0 run midway through the quarter to finally give themselves some breathing room in the contest. Kovatch scored all seven of the points in a 90 second-span to give SFU a 48-40 lead. The lead would grow to nine in the quarter before LIU came storming back, the Blackbirds used a 7-0 run of their own to cut the lead to 51-50, Shanovia Dove scored five of her team-high 24 in the run, SFU would lead 53-50 heading into the fourth. 

In the final quarter, SFU got another 7-0 spurt to put the game away for good. The Flash held LIU scoreless for over four minutes to stretch the lead back out to eight at 60-52. Free throws grew the lead to as many as 14 before LIU scored a couple of baskets in garbage time. SFU iced the game from the charity stripe, going 11-14 (79%) in the final quarter. 

In both meetings this year, it has been the SFU defense that proved to be the difference. In Brooklyn, LIU committed 27 turnovers, leading to 30 SFU points. Tonight, the Flash forced 23 more miscues, including 13 steals and getting 18 points off the turnovers.

With the victory, the Flash improved to 12-14 overall and 10-5 in the Northeast Conference. As it stands, the Flash are in third place overall, two games ahead of Robert Morris and two games behind Bryant for second. LIU dropped to 8-18 overall and 6-9 in the NEC, and currently sit in seventh place. 

Saint Francis will close out the home portion of the regular season on Monday night when they host the Terriers of St. Francis Brooklyn. Tip time in the All-Francis battle is set for 7 p.m.