NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – The Saint Francis women's basketball team (13-8, 11-4 NEC) beat Central Connecticut (4-13, 4-13 NEC) by an 80-67 margin on Thursday in the first game of the series. The Red Flash secured a playoff spot as the offense scored a season-high 80 points as a season-high five players reached double figures.
 
Saint Francis 80, Central Connecticut 67
Records: Saint Francis (13-8, 11-4 NEC), Central Connecticut (4-13, 4-13 NEC)
Location: Detrick Gymnasium (New Britain, Conn.)
 
KEY MOMENTS
After the Blue Devils cut the Red Flash lead down to three points to open the fourth quarter, Saint Francis put together a 10-1 run over two minutes of play to take a double-digit lead that would not be relinquished.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Saint Francis scored the first seven points of the game before a three-point play got Central Connecticut on the board after two minutes. The Red Flash stretched its lead to as many as nine during the first quarter, leading 17-8 midway through the quarter and 23-14 with 1:37 remaining in the opening 10 minutes.

CCSU ended the first quarter with a 7-2 run to cut SFU's lead to 25-21 after the first 10 minutes of play.

The Red Flash began the second quarter with the first eight points on the floor, including two three-pointers, to give itself its first double-digit lead of the game (33-21) with seven minutes remaining in the half.

Saint Francis led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter and held a 46-33 advantage going into the locker room. Jada Dapaa made the final four baskets for the Red Flash in the first half but it was Lili Benzel who led the game with 12 points at halftime.

The Blue Devils opened the second half with a 12-3 run to cut the Red Flash lead to four, 49-45, with 5:27 to play in the third quarter. The Red Flash increased its lead to eight as Dapaa and Karson Swogger each reached double figures before a Blue Devils' shot with two seconds remaining cut the SFU lead to 59-53 entering the fourth quarter. CCSU had the 20-13 advantage in the third quarter.

Central Connecticut opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer to cut the Saint Francis lead down to three points. The Red Flash responded with a 10-1 run to take a 69-57 lead with 6:39 to play. Four different SFU players contributed down the stretch as the Red Flash maintained a double-digit lead to win 80-67.

STATS
Both teams shot more than 50 percent in the first quarter, with Saint Francis shooting 10-of-18 (.556) from the floor and 4-of-9 (.444) from three-point range. The Red Flash had the shooting advantage from both the floor (54 percent to 40 percent) and from long range (43 percent to 31 percent) at halftime, as well as a 20-15 rebounding advantage.

SFU led the game in field-goal percentage (52.5 percent to 39.7 percent), three-point shooting (45.8 percent to 30 percent) and was a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe. The Red Flash out-rebounded the Blue Devils 35-29.

GAME NOTES

• The Red Flash offense scored a season-high 80 points in its best shooting performance of the season (31-of-59, 52.5 percent).
• This is the first game this season that more than four SFU players reached double figures.
• With two blocks in the game, Katie Dettwiller breaks into the top 10 in program history and is tied for ninth with 73 career blocks.
• Aaliyah Moore saw her first collegiate action.
• Saint Francis made seven three-pointers in the first half, eclipsing its average of 5.3 triples per game.
• Swogger reached double figures for the 16th-straight game and recorded her fifth 20-point game of the season.
• Benzel reached double figures for the 12^th time this season.
• The Red Flash scored 13 points off of seven Blue Devils turnovers during the first half.
• Four Saint Francis players had at least two triples each.
• Jenna Mastellone reached double figures for the ninth time this season.
• Dapaa reached double figures for the seventh time this season.
• Maxwell reached double figures for the second time this season with 11 points, just one shy of her career high.

THOUGHTS
Head Coach Keila Whittington: "I thought we came out with a lot of energy, executing on the offensive end and especially on the defensive end and doing all of the things we talked about in the game plan on how we wanted to defend and getting the rebounds, getting the steals, getting into transition and trying to get some early scores. We're just proud of the team for playing together. I think this is probably one of our more impressive wins of the year where we really played together, we shared the ball, we executed. They were excited. It was great to see smiling faces today."

Senior guard Karson Swogger: "I thought we were finding people. I think we had 17 assists as a team so everybody was trying to find the open man and not playing selfish at all. That really got our chemistry going and everybody was scoring really well."

UP AHEAD
The Red Flash and Blue Devils wrap up the regular season on Friday with a 4 p.m. tip-off. The game will be broadcast live on NEC Front Row.
 
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To learn more about Saint Francis University, visit francis.edu.