Men's Basketball | 12/29/2025 11:00:00 AM

Thirty-five years ago, Joe Anderson and Mike Iuzzolino led the Saint Francis men's basketball team to the first NEC Championship in school history. In conjunction with that anniversary, Anderson and Iuzzolino will join three "Golden Era of Red Flash Men's Basketball" players, Maurice Stokes (No. 26), Kevin Porter (No. 10) and Norm Van Lier (No. 12) in the rafters, with their numbers honored as among the great numbers in Saint Francis lore. The jerseys will be recognized in a ceremony on Saturday, February 14, against Mercyhurst. Game time is 2 p.m.

Speaking of the great Stokes, Anderson is the only player to score more points at Saint Francis than the Naismith Hall of Famer, with 2,301 career points (Stokes finished his career with 2,282 career points at Saint Francis). Iuzzolino is the only player to register more points in a single season with 772 points in his senior season of 1990-91 (Stokes had 760 points in 1950-51, also his senior campaign). Iuzzolino registered 1,346 points in his two years in Loretto, 13 points less than Stokes (1,360) had in his final two years. Anderson, Iuzzolino, Stokes and Darshan Luckey (2002-03, 2004-05) are the only players to post 550+ points in multiple seasons.  There is one more connection that Anderson and Iuzzolino share with Stokes. There are only five players in Red Flash history to average 20.0 points per game in a two-year span: Sandy Williams (25.8 ppg., 1962-64), Stokes (25.1 ppg., 1953-55), Porter (23.8 ppg., 1970-72), Iuzzolino (22.8 ppg., 1989-91) and Anderson (21.0 ppg., 1989-91). 

JOE ANDERSON (#44) CLASS OF 1991 - (WASHINGTON, D.C. / T.C. WILLIAMS)
Anderson graduated as the all-time leading scorer at Saint Francis and one of only three players to reach 2,000 points (Stokes and Keith Braxton), and the second most in NEC history. He was named to the All-NEC first team in his final three seasons (1988-89, 1989-90 and 1990-91), making him the third player at the time to earn the distinction three straight years: Rik Smits (Marist) and Caret Scurry (LIU). He scored double figures 111 times, including his last 33 games at Saint Francis, and had 12 games of 30 points or more and 46 20+ point contests. Anderson earned a spot on the NEC Tournament team after averaging 16.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in the two games of the NEC Tournament, including 22 points in the NEC Championship Game against FDU on March 2, 1991. He then posted 32 points and 10 rebounds against Fordham in the NCAA Play-in Game, in his final game at DeGol Arena on March 6, 1991, and 29 points and 12 rebounds against Arizona in the NCAA Tournament First Round on March 14, 1991. Along with points, he finished his career second in field goals made (868), third in steals (182, now fifth), fourth in 3-pointers made (170, now 10th), fourth in free throws made (395, now sixth), fifth in 3-point percentage (37.7, now outside Top-10), sixth in blocked shots (48, now outside Top-10), sixth in free throw percentage (76.9, now outside Top-10), and 14th in rebounding (666, now 20th). On the single-season charts, his 680 points are the third most in 1990-91, and his 637 points in 1989-90 are seventh most. He had a career-best 37 points three times: Delaware (November 25, 1989), LIU (January 11, 1990), and Duquesne (December 29, 1991). Anderson was the first of two players to reach 1,000 points by the end of his sophomore season.

MIKE IUZZOLINO (#42) CLASS OF 1991 - (ALTOONA, PA. / ALTOONA)
After playing one season at Penn State, the Altoona native returned to his home area to help produce the best two-year stretch since the end of the Golden Era of Saint Francis men's basketball in 1972. Iuzzolino was named the 1990-91 NEC Player of the Year, the first in program history, after averaging 24.1 points per game and shot 54.2 percent from the floor, 52.8 percent from behind the arc and 88.5 percent from the free throw line to rank 20th in scoring, third in 3-point percentage, sixth in free throw percentage and 15th in 3-pointers made in NCAA Division I that season. He was also named the NEC Tournament Most Valuable Player after posting 25 points and a season-high eight assists against St. Francis Brooklyn in the NEC Semifinals and 32 points and six assists against FDU in the NEC Championship Game. He added 16 points and five assists against Fordham in the NCAA Play-in Game and 20 points and six assists against Arizona in the NCAA Tournament. Iuzzolino registered 10 games with at least 30 points in his two seasons, including a career-high 41 points against Robert Morris on February 13, 1991, the fifth most in single-game team history and a trick turned by nine players 12 times. His performance against the Colonials marked the first time in 15 years that a Red Flash player scored 40 points in a game (Lamont Harris, LIU, January 18, 1986), a feat not repeated for 31 years (Josh Cohen, twice, in 2022-23). His 772 points in 1990-91 are a program record and he is the only player in team history to hit 100 3-pointers in a single season (103, 1990-91), and is one of two players with 200 made free throws (215, 1990-91) after Williams made 233 (1963-64) was the first player to reach the total. Iuzzolino also excelled in the classroom, earning two CoSIDA/GTE Academic All-American honors, two NEC Scholar-Athletes of the Year, and the unanimous Academic All-American of the Year in 1990-91. 

Both Iuzzolino (vs. St. Francis Brooklyn) and Anderson (vs. FDU) posted 32 points in the NEC Tournament in 1991, which was the fourth-most in a tournament game at the time and remains the 20th-most in NEC Tournament history. Iuzzolino's point total in his senior year was the third most in NEC history at the time and still ranks fifth, while he was the first player in NEC history to hit 100 triples in a season, and his 3-point percentage was the best in NEC history when he graduated and is now the third best. He was the second player in league history to make 200 free throws in a game and is second on the single-season chart in NEC history.

Iuzzolino was the last Saint Francis player drafted in the NBA in the second round of the 1991 draft (35th pick) by the Dallas Mavericks. He played two seasons with the Mavericks, averaging 9.0 points per game, before playing professionally in Italy and Spain until 2003. He joined the coaching ranks in 2005 with stops at Duquesne (2005-07), George Mason (2007-08), St. Vincent (2008-12), Canisius (2014-16) and Robert Morris (2016-24). At Canisius, he reunited with his Saint Francis head coach Jim Baron for two seasons. He is currently in his second season as the head coach of the Sewickley Academy boys basketball team. The squad went 24-5 overall and 12-0 in WPIAL 2A last season and is off to a 6-0 record this season. 

THE FIRST NEC CHAMPIONSHIP
From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Saint Francis ranked among the upper tier of the nation's college basketball programs. Between 1947 and 1971, Saint Francis teams posted 19 winning seasons and six 20-win campaigns, and were selected to participate in the elite National Invitational Tournament on three occasions during the Golden Era of Saint Francis Basketball. 

With the graduation of Porter after the 1971-72 season, the Golden Era had ended, and over the next 17 years, Saint Francis went 189-267 (.414). The Red Flash registered four winning seasons during this span, with the last one coming in 1980-81 with a 17-10 record, the most wins since 1967-68.

Anderson arrived as a freshman in the fall of 1987, and Baron was in his first season as a head coach after serving as an assistant at Notre Dame for the previous six seasons. Iuzzolino started his collegiate career at Penn State that same season. Saint Francis went 7-20 in the first season, but then improved to 13-16 in the second year, advancing to the NEC Semifinals for the first time since 1982-83. Iuzzolino was sitting out that season due to NCAA transfer regulations, but played in a Red Flash uniform for the first time in the 1989-89 and joined forces with Anderson to help the Loretto program to a 17-11 overall record and a 10-6 record in NEC play, the first winning season in NEC team history.

The 1990-91 season began with the Red Flash winning six of the eight games before NEC play started. A 91-85 loss at DeGol Arena to Pittsburgh would be the only loss in Loretto for the rest of the season. Though Saint Francis would have two more non-conference games on the schedule, the Red Flash ended the 1990 season with a bang, an 82-80 win against Duquesne on December 29, ending a 10-game losing streak. Anderson had a career-high 37 points in the win against the Dukes.

The NEC slate opened with six wins before the Red Flash lost two of its next three with a two-point loss at Robert Morris (87-85, January 19, 1991) and St. Francis Brooklyn (105-96, January 26, 1991). A four-game winning streak was halted by defeat at FDU (92-86, February 9, 1991), but that would be the last loss until the NCAA Tournament. 

After winning against Colgate, Iuzzolino scored a career-high 41 points, with 18 of them coming from the free throw line against Robert Morris on February 13, 1991, to start the final three NEC games of the regular season. 

Saint Francis defeated St. Francis Brooklyn 96-70 in the NEC Semifinals to put the Red Flash in the NEC Championship Game for the first time in program history. The Loretto program then defeated FDU 97-82 in the NEC Championship Game to earn the first NEC title for any sport in Saint Francis history, and end a two-game postseason losing streak to the Knights from the previous two seasons.. 

The Red Flash then hosted Fordham in the NCAA Play-in Game and defeated the Rams 70-64, sending Saint Francis to the NCAA Tournament. The win was ranked the best in team history in an Altoona Mirror 2020 poll (the win against the Knights in the championship game ranked ninth). 

The season ended with a 93-80 loss to Arizona on March 14, 1991, in the NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Saint Francis finished 24-8 overall and 13-3 in NEC play. The 24 wins are a school record, while the 13 wins in NEC play are tied for the most in a single season with the 2019-20 team. The team scored 83.6 points per game, the 47th most in NCAA Division I. In addition, the Red Flash led the NEC in scoring average, posting the second-best mark in league history at the time and now ranks sixth in NEC history. The 2,676 points scored that season were the most in NEC history at the time and are now the seventh most, and still rank as the most in team history. 

The 1990-91 NEC title was the only title for the men's basketball program until the 2024-25 Red Flash won the NEC Championship in March. Chris Moncrief's No. 0 jersey was ripped off him in the first half, and he put on No. 42 as a replacement, the same number Saint Francis will retire in February.

1990-91 SAINT FRANCIS ROSTER/SCHEDULE & RESULTS
1990-91 Team Members: Joe Anderson (Sr.), Tom Bennetch (Sr.), Steve Cloran (Fr.), Mike Fink (So.), Deon George (Fr.), John Hilvert (Sr.), Jim Horn (Fr.), Mike Iuzzolino (Sr.), Reggie Lewis (So.), Rob Pasci (Jr.), Antoine Patterson (Jr.), Bill Seaward (So.), Willie Smith (So.), Steve Strachan (Jr.)
 

DATE	SFU	OPP	OPPONENT	HIGHLIGHTS
November 23	90	72	Niagara (at Jaffe Mosque)	Anderson (24 pts), Iuzzolino (23 pts), Hilvert (15 pts)
December 1	85	91	Pittsburgh	Iuzzolino (31 pts), Anderson (28 pts), Hilvert (14 pts)
December 3	73	72	Liberty	Iuzzolino (32 pts), Anderson (21 pts)
December 5	72	70	at Delaware	Iuzzolino (20 pts), Anderson (15 pts), Bennetch (10 pts, 10 rebs), Hilvert (10 pts)
December 8	80	93	at Bucknell	Iuzzolino (26 pts), Anderson (22 pts)
December 15	100	94	Delaware State (at Jaffe Mosque)	Iuzzolino (30 pts), Anderson (21 pts), Bennetch (14 pts), Fink (12 pts, 12 rebs), Hilvert (12 pts)
December 17	68	79	at Cincinnati	Anderson (25 pts), Iuzzolino (21 pts)
December 22	68	71	Alabama-Birmingham ^	Anderson (20 pts), Iuzzolino (18 pts), George (11 pts), Bennetch (10 pts)
December 23	82	71	VCU ^	Iuzzolino (30 pts), Anderson (28 pts, 11 rebs)
December 29	82	80	Duquesne	Anderson (37 pts), Iuzzolino (26 pts), Strachan (10 pts)
January 3	89	62	LIU *	Iuzzolino (17 pts), Bennetch (14 pts), Anderson (10 pts), Strachan (10 pts)
January 5	98	88	St. Francis Brooklyn *	Iuzzolino (31 pts), Anderson (16 pts), Patterson (15 pts), Bennetch (14 pts)
January 8	80	78	FDU *	Anderson (28 pts), Iuzzolino (21 pts)
January 10	77	69	Marist *	Anderson (26 pts), Iuzzolino (25 pts)
January 12	90	89 ot	at Monmouth *	Iuzzolino (30 pts), Anderson (24 pts), Hilvert (13 pts), Fink (10 pts)
January 14	82	58	at Wagner *	Iuzzolino (17 pts), Bennetch (16 pts. 10 rebs), Anderson (16 pts), Fink (11 pts)
January 19	85	87	at Robert Morris *	Iuzzolino (32 pts), Anderson (21 pts), Bennetch (13 pts)
January 22	88	77	Mount St. Mary's *	Anderson (22 pts), Bennetch (20 pts, 10 rebs), Iuzzolino (17 pts), Hilvert (10 pts)
January 26	96	105	at St. Francis Brooklyn *	Iuzzolino (30 pts), Bennetch (17 pts), Anderson (14 pts), Fink (14 pts), George (10 pts)
January 28	81	78	at LIU *	Anderson (16 pts, 12 rebs), Iuzzolino (16 pts), Bennetch (12 pts), Hilvert (12 pts)
February 2	96	58	Wagner *	Iuzzolino (22 pts), Anderson (19 pts), Fink (14 pts)
February 4	79	69	UMBC	Iuzzolino (28 pts), Anderson (20 pts), Bennetch (10 pts)
February 7	83	67	at Marist *	Anderson (28 pts), Fink (13 pts), Iuzzolino (13 pts), Bennetch (10 pts)
February 9	86	92	at FDU *	Anderson (21 pts), Iuzzolino (20 pts), Hilvert (17 pts), Fink (12 pts)
February 11	90	78	Colgate	Anderson (23 pts), Iuzzolino (20 pts), Strachan (13 pts), Bennetch (11 pts)
February 13	85	80	Robert Morris *	Iuzzolino (41 pts), Anderson (15 pts), Hilvert (10 pts)
February 16	66	63	Monmouth *	Iuzzolino (17 pts), Hilvert (12 pts), Anderson (11 pts), Bennetch (10 rebs)
February 23	82	68	at Mount St. Mary's *	Iuzzolino (28 pts), Hilvert (14 pts), Anderson (13 pts), Bennetch (12 rebs)
February 28	96	70	St. Francis Brooklyn (NEC Quarterfinals)	Iuzzolino (25 pts), Fink (18 pts, 11 rebs), Hilvert (14 pts), Anderson (10 pts)
March 2	97	82	FDU (NEC Championship Game)	Iuzzolino (32 pts), Anderson (22 pts), Hilvert (13 pts)
March 6	70	64	Fordham (NCAA Play-in Game)	Anderson (32 pts, 10 rebs), Iuzzolino (16 pts)
March 14	80	93	vs Arizona (NCAA First Round)	Anderson (29 pts, 12 rebs), Iuzzolino (20 pts), Hilvert (17 pts)

^ at Big Isle Invitational, Kapaa, Hawaii | * NEC contest