Saint Francis head coach Rob Krimmel, right, reacts to a three-point basket during the first half of a First Four college basketball game against Alabama State in the NCAA Tournament, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Dayton, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

DAYTON, Ohio — Amarr Knox’s layup with one second left sealed Saint Francis’ fate as the Red Flash fell 70-68 to Alabama State Tuesday night in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament First Four.

It was an instant classic of a game between the two programs, and had the entire arena on their feet in the final moments inside the University of Dayton Arena.

“If you were coming to Dayton just looking for a college basketball game, and you happened to stop in here, you saw two teams who left it all out there,” Red Flash coach Rob Krimmel said.

Saint Francis (16-18) found itself in the lead throughout a majority of the game, but saw that lead slip away late in the second half. The Red Flash trailed by four with 1:36 left to play before Krimmel called a timeout.

Krimmel’s message to the team was rather simple.

“We’ve been here before, we need to make a play,” Krimmel said. “We decided to call on Juan (Cranford, Jr.) and Valentino Pinedo, get them to connect and come up with some points. And fortunately, we did. And then at that point, it was a game situation we’ve been in quite a bit here the last couple of weeks.”

Out of the timeout, Dayton native Juan Cranford, Jr. drained a 3-pointer to get Saint Francis within a point of the Hornets.

Alabama State’s TJ Madlock followed with a layup to push the Hornets’ lead back to three. The Red Flash immediately responded with a three from Chris Moncrief to tie the game at 68 apiece with 40 seconds left and bring the crowd to a roar.

After a defensive foul by Daemar Kelly, Matlock missed the front end of a one-and-one. Valentino Pinedo hauled in the rebound and got the ball to Cranford as the seconds ticked away. Cranford turned the ball over with three seconds left to set up one final play for the Hornets.

Alabama State (20-15) called its final timeout to draw up what turned out to be the game-winning play.

“We always spend probably about 10 to 12 minutes on situational stuff and so and we had a couple guys throwing the pass, and it wasn’t very consistent,” Hornets coach Tony Madlock said. “And then once we got Micah Simpson, we call him Deuce, he started throwing it, and it’s been going pretty good so that’s what happened.”

Simpson’s pass bounced off a multitude of players before finding the hands of Knox who put the ball in the basket to give the Hornets the lead and ultimately the win.

“There’s a fine line between winning and losing, but the margin, the emotional gap, is huge,” Krimmel said. “These guys for 34 games, left it all on the court for us.”

Alabama State now earns a date with Auburn on Thursday afternoon, the No. 1 team in the South Region.

“We’ve been in that moment, that situation, a few times this year, and we knew we just had to come out and play ball,” Knox said. “We stayed positive. We knew as soon as the next half started that we would come out, fly around, play aggressive and just do whatever it takes to win the game.”

Homecoming

Cranford put on a show for his home crowd scoring a game-high 18 points as well as eight rebounds. It might not have resulted in the win the Red Flash were looking for, but it put the finishing touches on an impressive freshman campaign in Loretto

“It means everything,” Cranford said. “I couldn’t ask for anything else, it was better than a dream for me, especially being here at home.”

Finishg strong

All-NEC guard Riley Parker finished with 12 points while Pinedo added 17 points of his own. Saint Francis shot 50 percent from the field and an impressive 45.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Falling short

At the end of the day, Saint Francis was in position to win the game, but ultimately came up just short in their quest to make program history and advance.

The main culprit in that were 15 turnovers, nine of which came in the first half. Alabama State scored 26 of their 70 points off those turnovers.

“It was an emphasis going into the second half, coming into the game, we knew that something they were very good at,” Krimmel said.

Now, a new season is upon the Red Flash, the off-season as they look to follow in this year’s championship footsteps.

“We turned the ball over too many times,” Cranford said. “We turned the ball over that many times, you can’t expect to come out with a good outcome.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

ST. FRANCIS (16-18): Pinedo 6-10 5-5 17, Cranford 6-12 1-2 18, Kelly 3-7 0-0 7, Moncrief 2-6 2-4 7, Parker 4-8 2-3 12, Sanon 1-1 0-0 2, Clayville 2-4 0-0 5, Rosenberger 0-0 0-0 0, Harris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-48 10-14 68.

ALABAMA STATE (20-15): Walker 2-7 0-0 4, Hines 4-15 0-0 10, Knox 8-15 0-2 16, Madlock 5-8 1-2 11, Octave 2-5 0-0 4, Bass 3-8 0-0 8, Simpson 3-8 0-0 9, Fulcher 2-3 0-0 5, Okon 0-0 0-0 0, Mack 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 30-70 1-4 70.

Halftime–Saint Francis 39-34. 3-Point Goals–Saint Francis 10-22 (Cranford 5-7, Parker 2-6, Moncrief 1-2, Clayville 1-3, Kelly 1-4), Alabama State 9-29 (Simpson 3-7, Hines 2-5, Bass 2-7, Mack 1-1, Fulcher 1-2, Knox 0-2, Octave 0-2, Walker 0-3). Rebounds–Saint Francis 29 (Cranford 8), Alabama State 30 (Madlock, Bass 7). Assists–Saint Francis 15 (Sanon 4), Alabama St. 12 (Simpson, Fulcher 3). Total Fouls–Saint Francis 14, Alabama St. 15.