WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
>> Saint Francis' hot shooting in the first half powered the Red Flash to a 93-82 win against LIU in Northeast Conference (NEC) men's basketball action on Saturday.
>> Maxwell Land (Cincinnati, Ohio) scored 21 points against the Sharks for the second time this season to pace the Loretto program.
>>Josh Cohen (Lincroft, N.J.) (16 points), Brad McCabe (Manasquan, N.J.) (14 points), Cam Gregory (Accokeek, Md.) (13 points) and Gestin Liberis (Haverton, Pa.) (10 points) also registered double figures for Saint Francis.
>> The Red Flash earned its first two game sweep in a three-day span since sweeping the Brooklyn trip in the 2016-17 campaign.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME
Saint Francis took part of the recipe for success at home to jump out to a 16-5 lead with 13:10 left in the first half. The Red Flash hit four 3-pointers in the four minutes and 37 seconds and off the hands of Land, Luke Ruggery (Duncansville, Pa.), McCabe and Ronell Giles, Jr. (Brandywine, Md.) before Cohen and Marlon Hargis (Mays Landing, N.J.) each added two points in the spurt.

FLASH QUOTES
"Certainly good to leave New York 2-0 and sweep a road trip. It gives us some momentum going back home for our final two games. We want to be playing our best game of basketball. I think these guys did a good job on this trip executing the game plan. I thought this game in particular we did a great job rebounding the basketball after an early stretch where we let them get some runs at the rim and I thought we took care of the basketball. Being able to get some points off of their turnovers early was important too. I was pleased with the defensive intensity that we started with and then once we got the lead to be able to handle the basketball. I thought both Ronell and Cam did a fantastic job of getting the ball to the spots that we needed. I also thought the guys on the backend, Max and Gestin did a good job finishing well." – head coach Rob Krimmel on the game
 
"I talked to Gestin after the game. I thought he did a fantastic job of executing offensively and doing the things he did defensively. When your number is called mentally to be ready with the game plan. I thought he did a tremendous job with that." – Krimmel on the play of Gestin Liberis

FLASH MOMENTS
The Sharks cut the margin to 16-10 with 12:05 left in the opening frame before the Loretto program rolled off a 29-15 spurt to take a 45-25 lead with 45 seconds until the intermission. The Red Flash went into the break with a 45-28 advantage. Cohen powered the run with 10 points and McCabe added eight points in the spurt to end the half. Saint Francis held its largest lead at 40-18 with 3:08 left in the stanza.
 
The second half the Red Flash held a 20-point lead for most of the frame until LIU made a late push. The bright spot in the second half was the play of its freshman. Gregory posted all of his 13 points in the second half for a new NEC career high, while Liberis had all of his 10 points in the second half for his first career double-digit point performance. Land also had 12 points in the final 20 minutes.

FLASH NUGGETS
Land now has seven 20-point games in his career and in three of his last four games against LIU. The junior notched 20 points in last year's meeting in Brooklyn and then tallied 21 points in both matchups this season. With his 21 points, Land has now moved over 800 points in his career with 808 points in his three seasons. He has registered double figures in points in 12 of the 14 NEC games this season.
 
Cohen, who joined the 1,000-point club on Thursday at St. Francis Brooklyn, moved into the Top-40 in program history with 1,035 career points. The redshirt junior added seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block on Saturday. Cohen needs three rebounds for 500 boards in his career. With 579 points this season, Cohen has notched the most points in a single season under head coach Rob Krimmel and moved into 12th place on the all-time single-season chart for points in a season.
 
McCabe notched a season-high 14 points for the second time this season after registering that total at Merrimack on February 4. It is his ninth 10+ game this season and fourth in his last six games.
 
Gregory registered his second-straight 10+ game and the third of his career. The freshman posted his first 10-point game in league play at St. Francis Brooklyn on Thursday, including posting seven of his points in the decisive run in the second half. The 13 points on Saturday established a new NEC high and marks his second-highest total after his 15 points at Ohio State on December 3.
 
Saint Francis is 5-0 against the three teams from New York this season. It can sweep the Empire State league slate with a win against Wagner on February 25 in the regular season finale. Along with its first sweep of the Brooklyn teams for the first time since 2016-17, the team also swept the three New York teams on the road for the first since that same season.
 
The Red Flash scored 90 points in an NEC game for the first time since a 90-82 win against FDU in 2020-21 and the first time on the road was also against the Knights with a 100-85 decision in 2019-20.

NEXT TIME OUT
Saint Francis returns to action when it starts its final homestand of the regular season against FDU. Game time is 7 p.m.