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| Saint Francis Probable Starters |
| Pos. |
No. |
Name |
Ht. |
Yr. |
PPG |
RPG |
FG% |
Note |
| GÂ |
0 |
Yanessa Boyd |
5-9 |
So. |
7.5 |
3.6 |
33.3 |
Posted eight points, six boards vs Chicago State |
| G |
4 |
Marissa Shelton |
5-8 |
Jr. |
6.3 |
2.3 |
33.1 |
Averaging 10.6 ppg in home NEC games |
| G |
10 |
Ineivi Plata |
5-3 |
Fr. |
5.0 |
3.5 |
36.4 |
Scored go-ahead basket vs. Chicago State |
| F |
12 |
Julianna Gibson |
6-2 |
Jr. |
5.2 |
2.9 |
51.6 |
Notched 10 points and six rebounds at Le Moyne |
| F |
23 Â Â Â |
Marina Artero |
5-11 |
So. |
1.8 |
4.2 |
33.3 |
Averaging 6.3 rpg in last four home games |
| Top Players Off the Bench |
| Pos. |
No. |
Name |
Ht. |
Yr. |
PPG |
RPG |
FG% |
Note |
| GÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â |
1 |
Kameryn Dorsey |
5-6 |
So. |
7.0 |
5.0 |
60.0 |
Out for season due to an injury |
| F |
3 |
Jade Campbell |
6-0 |
Jr. |
5.2 |
4.3 |
42.9 |
Had eight points in first meeting with Stonehill |
| G |
5 |
Natalie Johnson |
5-8 |
Jr. |
9.3 |
2.5 |
47.2 |
Averaging 15.8 ppg in her last four Thursday games |
| G |
11 |
Harris Robinson |
5-8Â Â Â Â |
Sr. |
3.5 |
2.6 |
38.8 |
Had career-high five assists vs. Chicago State |
| G |
20 |
Airah Lavy |
5-10 |
Fr. |
6.8 |
1.1 |
33.8 |
Posted 18 points against Chicago State |
| GÂ Â Â Â |
21 |
Gemma Walker |
5-10 |
Fr. |
1.2 |
0.3 |
23.5 |
Notched career-high four points vs Le Moyne at home |
| G |
24Â Â Â Â |
Destini Ward |
5-8 |
Jr. |
--- |
--- |
--- |
Team captain in 2024-25 |
| F |
32 |
Fanta Daffe |
5-10 |
Sr. |
0.0 |
0.6 |
0.0 |
Grabbed two rebounds against Le Moyne at home |
| F |
33 |
Giselle Eke |
6-3 |
Fr. |
1.7 |
2.2 |
28.9 |
Tied career high with five rebounds against Wagner |
| F |
34 |
Alary Bell |
6-2 |
So. |
4.8 |
4.4 |
50.0 |
Leads the team with 5.0 rpg in league play |
SAINT FRANCIS TIDBITS IN A FLASH (FULL GAMENOTES PDF)
• Thursday's game between Saint Francis and Stonehill marks the sixth meeting in the all-time series dating back to the 2022-23 season. The Red Flash won the first two meetings before the Skyhawks took the last three contests, including a 73-59 decision on January 4 in New Easton.
• "Strange game. The only winning move is not to play." - Joshua Wopr from "War Games." It's a good thing that Joshua learned that playing nuclear war there is no winner to be a footnote in history, but for the Saint Francis women's basketball team, they are looking to become the first Northeast Conference school with 400 wins in conference play. The Red Flash sit at 395 wins in the first 39 years of the circuit. The team has averaged 10.1 wins per season. Mount St. Mary's is the closest team with 355 wins, while FDU is next on the active list with 321 victories.
• Notes from the NEC Desk: Red Flash non-starters are combining to average 26.8 points per game, which makes them the 19th-most productive bench in the nation. Defense has been a key contributor to the Red Flash's success this season. Saint Francis is holding league foes to 57.0 points per game, which ranks second in the circuit. That is an 8.2 point improvement from last year's squad, which conceded 65.2 points per night. Saint Francis has also seen a 15.4 percent improvement on the offensive end, averaging 61.5 points per game this season, up from 53.3 points per game in 2023-24 (last in NEC).
• Saint Francis is now in its second four-game homestand of the season. It is the first time in program history the team will have two four-game homestands in the same season. The team has hosted four consecutive games in league play six times and had two five-game homestands in 1995-96 and 1999-00, and won all five games both times. It is the third time under head coach
Keila Whittington that the Red Flash has recorded a four-game homestand (2019-20, 2022-23). The squad has won three of four in a four-game homestand four times, including the first four-game homestand this season (2004-05, 2010-11, 2019-20, and 2024-25), and split the four games in 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2022-23. Saint Francis has never had a losing record in a four-game NEC homestand. The team started this four-game stretch with a 63-58 win against Chicago State on February 8.
• Saint Francis has won six of its last seven for the first time since the 2021-22 season. The last time the Red Flash won four straight home games was in 2020-21. That season, the team had a five-game home winning streak, but that included a non-conference win against Kent State. The last time the squad posted five-straight NEC home wins was 2018-19.
• Saint Francis will host CCSU on Saturday for Senior Day. Before the game, the Red Flash will honor seniors
Fanta Daffe and
Harris Robinson and graduate assistants
Richie McKercher and
Marcus Thrilvrus. The home schedule concludes against Mercyhurst on February 20.
AN SFU WIN WOULD
• End a three-game losing streak to Stonehill and notch the first win vs the Skyhawks since 2022-23
• Be the team's fifth-straight win at DeGol Arena
• Improve to 3-0 in the month of February
• Notch the 396th win in NEC play in program history
• Improve to 8-3 in NEC play for the fifth time in program history and the first time since 2019-20
• Register its seventh win in the last eight games
ABOUT THE SKYHAWKS
• Stonehill comes into the contest 10-12 overall and 6-4 in Northeast Conference play after defeating LIU 58-50 on Saturday. The Skyhawks are 4-6 on the road and 2-2 away from Merkert Gymnasium in league play.
• Kylie Swider, the current NEC Co-Player of the Week, paced Stonehill with 20 points and 15 rebounds against the Sharks. Sharn Hayward added 18 points, and Brooke Paquette chipped in 13 points.Â
• Hayward leads the team with 16.0 points per game. Swider is averaging 13.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, while Paquette is third with 11.3 points per game. Paquette also powers the team in assists (114) and steals (37).
LAST TIME WE MET
• Stonehill defeated Saint Francis 73-59 on January 4 in Massachusetts.
• Junior
Natalie Johnson paced the Red Flash with 13 points, while freshman
Alary Bell added a career-high 10 points.
•
Sharn Hayward made nine baskets from 3-point land to finish with a game-high 29 points.
Kylie Swider tallied 16 points and 11 rebounds, while
Brooke Paquette chipped in 11 points and nine assists.Â
LAST TIME OUT
• Freshman
Ineivi Plata scored off the glass with 58 seconds left to give Saint Francis the lead for good in a 63-58 win against Chicago State on Saturday. Sophomore
Yanessa Boyd helped seal the victory with four free throws and the final defensive rebound with the Red Flash up three points.
• Freshman
Airah Lavy paced Saint Francis with 18 points. Boyd had eight points and six rebounds, while senior
Harris Robinson added seven points and a career-high five assists.Â
STATE OF THE NEC
• FDU leads the NEC with a 9-0 record. Saint Francis currently sits in second place at 7-3. Stonehill, the Red Flash's opponent on Thursday, is a game back in the win column at 6-3, and CCSU, Saint Francis' opponent on Saturday, is a game back of the Red Flash at 5-4. Mercyhurst is fifth at 5-6 but is ineligible for the postseason, while Le Moyne (4-5), Chicago State (3-7), LIU (3-8) and Wagner (2-8) round out the standings.Â
• With six games left, Jim Mora's famous rant on November 25, 2001, might be the right sentiment: "What's that? Ah - Playoffs? Don't talk about - playoffs. You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game! " However, if you are thinking playoffs, this week could be key to the Saint Francis hopes of hosting one or more games in the NEC Tournament. Â
• Stonehill defeated Saint Francis 73-59 on January 2, so a win on Thursday would mean that the two teams would split the season series. A win on Thursday and a win on Saturday against CCSU would give the Red Flash a leg up on both teams because a win against the Blue Devils would mean a sweep for Saint Francis, while the best Stonehill could do would be a split against CCSU after the Blue Devils beat the Skyhawks 71-59 on February 1 in New Britain. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head, so a split with Stonehill would mean the next tiebreaker is winning percentage against the standings, so unless Stonehill or Saint Francis defeats FDU, the next tiebreaker most likely would be decided by the results against CCSU.Â
• The Top-4 teams receive a home game in the quarterfinals, so the Red Flash are currently two and a half games up on Le Moyne for the final home playoff game. Saint Francis' magic number to clinch a home game is five and the magic number to clinch the number two seed is seven.
• This will be the 10th time the NEC has a nine-team, 16-game league schedule. Last season, the No. 4 seed finished 8-8, while in 1991-92, a team that won eight games also hosted a game but had to go through a tiebreaker. In 1989-90, 1990-91, and 2022-23, a nine-win team sat in the Top-4, but just like in 1991-92, the 1990-91 four seed was decided by a tiebreaker. In 1986-87, the fourth seed won 10 games, and in 1987-88 and 1988-89, the No. 4 team won 11 games, although in 1987-88, the fifth seed won just six games.Â
TRENDING UP
• "Well, actually, pretty nice little Saturday. We're going to Home Depot. Buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring—stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath and Beyond, I don't know. I don't know if we'll have enough time." - Frank The Tank in "Old School." Freshman Airah Lavy must love the weekend because she has registered her last three 10+ point games on a Saturday and five of her seven double-figure point games on the weekend. The freshman averages 12.8 points per game in her previous four Saturday tilts and 3.2 points per game in her last four games during the work week. She registered her career-high 19 points at Robert Morris on November 20, a Wednesday.
• "Well, I'm in a gambling mood Sammy. I'll take a glass of whatever comes out of that tap." - Norm from "Cheers." While Lavy goes crazy on the weekend, junior Natalie Johnson has had better success on Thursdays, which was the home of Must See TV on NBC, and Cheers was the backbone of that success from 1982-93 in the nine o'clock time slot. Both of Johnson's 20-point performances have come on a Thursday, and six of her 10 double-figure games have taken place during the work week. Johnson is averaging 15.8 points per game in her last four Thursday games. The analytics also sway for Johnson when she is on the road, with nine of her 10+ point games coming on the road, including all of her top performances.Â
• "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." - Vincent Van Gogh. Sophomore Yanessa Boydcontinues to come up big in the end. The sophomore was instrumental in winning at Wagner on January 25 and winning against Chicago State on February 8. The sophomore averages 5.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in conference games but has five games with at least eight points, four with at least five boards, and five with at least three assists in 10 league games. Boyd registered 10 points, six rebounds, and three assists against CCSU on January 2.
• Senior Harris Robinson, who will be playing in her final three home games starting on Thursday and making her final push as a collegiate athlete, registered a career-high five assists and seven points against Chicago State. The senior has registered at least seven points five times this season and six or more rebounds three times, including against Le Moyne on February 6. She has handed out multiple assists four times during the year, but the five dimes against the Cougars were when she turned the trick in NEC play this season.
• Whether you are Joe Cocker or John Belushi imitating Cocker (if you don't know, google it, you won't be sorry), freshman Ineivi Plata makes sure, "Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends." Plata has registered at least two assists in every NEC game this season except for two games, and the overtime win at Le Moyne marked the first time this season that the Red Flash won a game where the freshman did not register an assist. Plata has registered double figures in three of her last five games, averaging 9.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game in that stretch. She had a career-high 14 points at LIU on January 23.Â
