Chapel Hill, N.C. - The Saint Francis men's basketball team (1-3) gave the No. 7 North Carolina Tar Heels a slight scare on Monday night, trailing by 6 points with under 16 minutes to play in a 101-76 defeat. Senior Jamaal King (Salisbury, Md./Bishop O'Connell (Va.)) led Saint Francis with 21 points and was aided by 18 points from senior Andre Wolford (North Olmstead, Ohio/Saint Ignatius) and 14 points, nine rebounds and five steals from junior Keith Braxton (Glassboro, N.J./Delsea).

Krimmel's Reaction

"I was proud of our effort and execution for 40 minutes tonight," said head coach Rob Krimmel. "We missed some wide open looks which could have made the final score a little closer but I thought we played together and unselfishly from start to finish."

Turning Point

The Red Flash put the heat on the Tar Heels coming out of the second half with a 16-6 run to pull within 58-52 with 15:49 to play. Braxton closed the run with a sweet transition layup created from a fake behind-the-back pass. However, the Tar Heels regained momentum out of the media timeout, responding with an 11-0 run. SFU wouldn't get closer than 12 the rest of the way.

First Half Summary

The Tar Heels stormed out to a 25-10 lead before the Red Flash would start to chip away. Two free throws from Wolford pulled SFU within 42-34 with 2:37 left in the half. Similar to the UCLA game, Saint Francis faltered at the end of the half, being outscored 10-2 over the final two and a half minutes to trail 52-36 at the break.

Second Half Summary

Freshman Myles Thompson (Camden, N.J./Camden) opened the half with a three-pointer from the top of the key and the Red Flash were off and running. A King layup, hook shot from senior Luidgy Laporal (Petit-Boutg, France/Harcum C.C.) and three from King cut the deficit to single digits. After shrinking it to as many as six, SFU saw it grow to 69-52 but answered with a Braxton three and another made field goal from Laporal. Saint Francis trailed 73-60 after a King corner three with 9:28 left but was outscored 28-16 over the final nine minutes.

Inside the Box Score

• Saint Francis shot 23-67 (34.4%) for the game while the Tar Heels made 34-65 shots (52.3%).
• Saint Francis knocked down a season-high 10 three-pointers on 29 attempts (34.5%). North Carolina went 10-25 (40%) from three-point range.
• Saint Francis was 20-27 (74.1%) from the charity stripe while UNC knocked down 23-27 (85.2).
• Saint Francis hung tough with the larger Tar Heels on the glass as rebounds were 46-37 in UNC's favor.
• Saint Francis forced North Carolina into a season-high 18 turnovers while committing 17.
• Saint Francis held the high-flying Tar Heels to just 20 fast break points, a marked improvement from Friday's loss at UCLA.
• Points in the paint were 42-24 for North Carolina.
• THe UNC bench, led by 19 points and seven rebounds from freshman Nassir Little, outscored SFU's bemch 41-9.

Notes

• King tied his season-high with 21 points to move into 32nd place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,070 points.
• Wolford knocked down three three-pointers, the most in a single game by any SFU player this season.
• Braxton scored 14 points on just eight shots, going 5-8 from the field and 2-3 from three-point range.
• Thompson chipped in with eight points and five rebounds as all five SFU starters scored six points or more.
• Saint Francis has yet to shoot 40% from the field in any of its four games. Its season-high field goal% was 38.8% in a win over Morgan State.
• Freshman Precious Ikediashi (Hoboken, N.J./Hudson Catholic) scored his first career points with two points and two rebounds in two minutes of action.

Up Next

SFU wraps up a three-game stretch against ranked opponents next Saturday, Nov. 24, at No. 13 Virginia Tech.