Red Flash earn trip to semifinals
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LORETTO -- It's been said that many times, the way that a team practices is the way that it will play.
That was good news for Saint Francis University Wednesday night, as the Red Flash prepared well during the day and carried it over to their Northeast Conference quarterfinal game in the evening, riding a balanced and powerful offensive attack to an 83-69 victory over Central Connecticut State at DeGol Arena.
The victory moves the Red Flash, seeded third in the tournament, into a semifinal matchup on the road at 8 p.m. Saturday night against second-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, which topped Saint Francis of Brooklyn, 83-75, in another quarterfinal game Wednesday.
Red Flash coach Rob Krimmel had a gut feeling that his team was ready to go on Wednesday.
"We had two really good practices this week, and in our shoot around (Wednesday) morning, we were really focused,'' Krimmel said. "I expected us to come out strong tonight.
"I'm just thankful that these guys had the experience of playing here tonight before a great crowd, a very supportive crowd,'' Krimmel added. "This is why you put the jerseys on.''
Redshirt junior forward Josh Cohen was a force inside again for Saint Francis, leading all scorers with 25 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, which tied him for the game best in that department with Central Connecticut's Andre Snoddy.
Junior guard/forwardMaxwell Land rode a hot second-half shooting hand to 23 points, and junior guard Ronell Giles, Jr. added 14 for Saint Francis, which improved to 13-17.
"Those three guys did an excellent job for us tonight,'' Krimmel said of Cohen, Land and Giles, Jr. "We've got the type of team that could have three other guys step up and perform just as well for us the next game, and it's important that our guys in the locker room understand that.
"When you have guys on your team who can share the ball, and who don't care who gets the credit, it makes my job easier.''
The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Cohen, whose size and strength makes him an extremely difficult guard near the basket for any opponent, thought that Saint Francis played a solid all-around game Wednesday.
"We did a great job of interacting our guards with our bigs,'' Cohen said. "Everybody has done a great job of sticking together as a team, and we're starting to hit our shots.''
Saint Francis - which converted 31 of 67 floor shots for a 46.3 percent clip -- used a 15-4 run near the end of the first half to build a 39-30 halftime lead, then put together an 8-point spurt early in the second half to bolt out to a 51-37 advantage with 14:18 remaining in the game.
Giles sparked the first-half surge with a pair of 3-pointers and two free throws, while Land contributed another 3-pointer, as Saint Francis overcame an early 26-24 deficit.
"We knew that they were doubling down on Josh (Cohen) on defense, but they couldn't afford to double down on Josh all night when our other guys were hitting shots from the perimeter,'' Giles said. "We forced them to kind of pick their poison there.''
Snoddy said that although Central Connecticut never gave up, falling behind before intermission put his team in a hole.
"We played all 40 minutes tonight, but when they went on that little run, that definitely hurt us,'' Snoddy said.
In the second half, Cohen scored two free throws and an inside bucket, Giles came up with a steal and a length-of-the-court layup, and freshman Landon Moore finished off the surge with a spinning lay-in as Saint Francis expanded a 43-37 lead to 51-37.
With Land scoring six field goals, including two 3-pointers, to account for 14 points in the second half, Saint Francis extended its lead to 19 points on three different occasions.
"I was just getting into open areas, getting into my hot spots, and I was ready to knock down my shots,'' Land explained.
Central Connecticut State, seeded sixth in the tournament, finished the season at 10-22. Central Connecticut State got double-figure scoring from four players, as Jayden Brown and Kellen Amos scored 13 points apiece and Snoddy and Nigel Scantlebury chipped in 12 apiece.
But it wasn't enough against a laser-focused Saint Francis team. Redshirt junior Luke Ruggery, the former all-state player from Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School, was in Wednesday's starting lineup for Saint Francis and scored a 3-point field goal late in the second half.
"Give Saint Francis a lot of credit - they had a really good game plan and did a really good job tonight,'' Central Connecticut State coach Patrick Sellers said. "Coach Krimmel does a great job with that team, and I can see those guys going all the way to the NCAA tournament this year.''
The next step for the Red Flash will be trying to defeat an FDU team in a hostile environment in the conference tournament semifinals on Saturday night. The two teams split a pair of regular-season games, with each winning on its home floor.
"We have one more game promised, and we're certainly looking forward to playing them,'' Krimmel said of FDU. "We won tonight, and we're moving on.''
CCSU (10-22): Dehnavi 0-0 0-0 0, Amos 4-11 3-4 13, Rodgers 2-11 0-0 4, Scantlebury 4-12 4-5 12, Snoddy 6-7 0-3 12, Sweatman 2-10 0-0 4, Breland 3-5 0-0 8, Brown 6-7 1-2 13, Ostrowsky 0-1 0-0 0, Limric 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 28-65 8-14 69.
ST. FRANCIS (13-17): Cohen 10-20 5-8 25, Giles 5-13 2-2 14, McCabe 2-3 0-0 5, Ruggery 1-3 0-0 3, Land 9-15 1-2 23, Moore 3-7 2-2 9, Gregory 0-1 0-0 0, Liberis 1-2 2-2 4, Hargis 0-2 0-0 0, Sanon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-68 12-16 83.
Halftime--St. Francis, 39-30. 3-point goals--CCSU 5-20 (Breland 2-3, Amos 2-5, Limric 1-1, Ostrowsky 0-1, Snoddy 0-1, Sweatman 0-2, Rodgers 0-3, Scantlebury 0-4), St. Francis 9-21 (Land 4-8, Giles 2-5, McCabe 1-1, Moore 1-1, Ruggery 1-3, Gregory 0-1, Hargis 0-1, Sanon 0-1). Rebounds--CCSU 35 (Snoddy 12), St. Francis 36 (Cohen 12). Assists--CCSU 11 (Scantlebury 5), St. Francis 12 (Cohen, Land 3). Total Fouls--CCSU 15, St. Francis 15.