An 11-0 run in the second half led the St. Francis Red Flash over the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team 73-68 on Thursday night.
Senior forward James Feldeine had a game-high 21 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while junior forward Justin Rutty also contributed a double-double for the Bobcats with 14 points and 16 rebounds.
The Bobcats held a 17-point lead in the first half and led for most of the second half, but the Red Flash scored 11 straight points to move ahead by three points with 7:49 left in the game. The Bobcats pulled within one point of the Red Flash after Feldeine’s two free throws with 7:20 remaining in the game, but the Red Flash never gave up the lead.
The Bobcats pulled within three points of the Red Flash on a Deontay Twyman jumper, but St. Francis answered with a three-pointer to end the Bobcats’ final run with 46 seconds remaining.
“What usually happens in basketball games is the team that plays harder and plays with more purpose throughout the game wins,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore said. “St. Francis played much harder and with more purpose over the full 40 minutes. That’s a tribute to them and their coaching staff and their kids.”
Assistant coach Scott Burrell agreed with Moore’s assessment, but pointed to Feldeine’s turnover with 13 seconds left in the first half the turning point.
“We had turnovers that led to a bucket and that gave them so much energy,” Burrell said. ““We played a great first half until the last possession. We didn’t do anything in the second half. We didn’t compete.”
The Bobcats returned to their usual form of outrebounding their opponent, beating St. Francis 50-33 on the glass.
The Red Flash outshot the Bobcats from the floor 43.8 percent to 32.8 percent. St. Francis also topped the Bobcats in 3-point shooting, hitting 7-of-18 from beyond the arc while the Bobcats only made 5-of-20.
Quinnipiac’s record fell to 18-8 overall and 12-3 in the conference. The Bobcats are now two games behind first-place Robert Morris in the Northeast Conference. St. Francis improved to 10-16 on the year with an 8-7 record in the NEC
The Bobcats will take on Robert Morris Saturday night at the Sewall Center in Moon Township, Pa.
