WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
>> On a night to honor the legacy of Kevin Porter, fueled by five players in double figures, Saint Francis helped supplant head coach
Rob Krimmel's legacy with his 100th career win at DeGol Arena thanks to an 86-78 win against Le Moyne in Northeast Conference men's basketball action on Thursday.
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Riley Parker paced the Red Flash with 18 points, while
Daemar Kelly tied his career high with 14 points.
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Juan Cranford, Jr. (13 points, five rebounds, five assists) and
Chris Moncrief (12 points, six assists, five rebounds) each stuffed the stat sheet, while
Bobby Rosenberger III chipped in 10 points in the winning effort.
>> Porter, who won the NBA assist title four times in his career, would have enjoyed the Frankies' 18-assist effort, tying the most in a contest this season against an NCAA Division I opponent.
>> Krimmel is the first basketball head coach to reach 100 wins at DeGol Arena, while men's volleyball head coach Mike Rumbaugh is the only other coach to reach the mark in the gym that opened in the 1972-73 season.
TURNING POINTS OF THE GAME
Saint Francis took the lead in the first half and had to withstand a comeback attempt by the Dolphins. Along with it being Kevin Porter Night, 66 Altoona Curve season ticket holders were in attendance for the game, so to use a baseball term, the middle relief and closers made the game interesting.
The Red Flash grabbed its largest lead at 18 points seven times in the second half, but after Rosenberger scored in the lane with 13:38 left, Le Moyne started whittling away at the deficit. The Dolphins used a 30-14 run to trim the margin to 78-74 with two minutes and 10 seconds left. Cranford and Parker both hit two free throws, and Le Moyne could get no closer than six points the rest of the way.
FLASH QUOTES
"It's a special place to play. It really is. As a former player, I love playing here as a coach. We have such great support from our community. It's just a great place to play college basketball and to be able to do it in front of our alums, and with the way these guys performed, it's certainly something I'll remember when I'm done coaching."
– Krimmel on his 100 win
"That confidence is a powerful emotion, and these guys are a pretty resilient group. They keep coming back, they keep working, they keep doing what we ask them to do. And even in that, I think it's a great lesson that there's no guarantee that you will win a game. We've had situations where we could have won those games, but it wasn't our time. And these guys are fun to coach. They bounce back, and they're good kids, they're good teammates, and they play hard."
– Krimmel on the team
"Chris's big thing was he had shown glimpses, but it was one of those things where we needed him to be consistent, from practice to practice, from game to game, and he's demonstrated that over the course of the last two or three weeks."
– Krimmel on the play of Chris Moncrief
"My teammates instill a lot of confidence in me. When my teammates have my back and keep giving me, it's a good thing, so credit to them."
– Chris Moncrief on the help from his teammates
"When you see the jerseys of Maurice Stokes, Norm Van Lier, and Kevin Porter up there, it makes my job easy when you talk about tradition. For a group of guys that played here back in the late 60s and early 70s, they still have an unbelievable amount of energy and pride for what they were able to accomplish here. Kevin was a big part of that, and the thing that people say about Kevin is that he made people around him better, and not just as a basketball player."
– Krimmel on honoring Kevin Porter
FLASH MOMENTS
After Le Moyne took a 13-12 edge with 12:16 left in the first half, the Red Flash responded with a 20-3 run to take a 32-16 advantage with 5:32 on the clock. Seven different players had a hand in the spurt, with
Valentino Pinedo giving the Frankies the lead for good with 11:50 remaining in the first half and Rosenberger capping the run with a triple at 5:32 left.
FLASH NUGGETS
Parker has registered five straight games in double figures for the third time this season and the third time in the last 19 games. After averaging 16.6 points per game in his previous two five-gamers, the junior is averaging 18.6 points per game and has three games with at least 18 points and a career-high 29 points against LIU on January 18 in his current run. Parker has posted 18 points or more nine times in his last 19 tilts.
Kelly has registered a career-high 14 points in back-to-back contests after first reaching the mark at Mercyhurst on January 30. The junior has posted at least nine points in his last four games with three 10+ point performances. He is averaging 12.0 points per game and is shooting 56.2 percent (18-for-32) from the floor in his previous four games.
Cranford, who returned to the starting lineup for the first time in seven games, recorded five assists for the third time this season and has five rebounds in each of his last three tilts and eight times this season. Saint Francis is 5-1 this season when he has three helpers in a game. He also reached double figures for the 12th time this season and the fifth time in conference play.
Moncrief made his first start after coming off the bench in his last 40 games. He dished out a career-high six assists, grabbed five rebounds for the sixth time this season, and posted his third 10+ point game of his career. The 12 points were the most points he has scored at home against a Division I opponent. The junior started the first eight games of his Red Flash career, with the last one coming for another Krimmel milestone, a 62-61 win at Lehigh on November 30, 2023 for Krimmel's 150 career victory.
Rosenberger, who did not start for the first time after hearing his name called in the last 49 contests, reached double figures for the 14th time this season and the 28th time of his career. It was his first 10+ point game since scoring 10 points against Mercyhurst on January 10.
The last time Krimmel had a milestone was for his 100 career NEC win, which happened on the first home game in February, against an opponent in its second year in the league and against a coach who is leading his alma mater, which were all the same scenarios on Thursday. Krimmel reached his 100 NEC win against Stonehill on February 10, 2024. The 13-year head coach also registered his 200th NEC game against Le Moyne last season in Syracuse on January 21, 2024. The Dean of the NEC currently sits in 12th place for NEC wins with 104 victories, two away from moving to 11th place. Krimmel's 164 wins also rank fourth in Saint Francis history by any coach and the second most by a men's basketball head coach to Dr. William "Skip" Hughes.
NEXT ON TAP
Saint Francis will embark on a four-game road trip, starting at Chicago State on Saturday. Game time is 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT.
