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LORETTO – Without the benefit of being able to be a part of the NBA’s wild and woolly trading deadline that went down on Thursday, coach Rob Krimmel and his St. Francis University men’s basketball team had to try to break a four-game losing streak without three rotational players and the benefit of potential reinforcements.
The Red Flash are coming down the home stretch of the regular season working with what they have.
That short-handed group circled the wagons and rose to the occasion, coming back from 17 down with less than 11 minutes to go in regulation to pull out a 78-76 win over Sacred Heart on Josh Cohen’s shot with 3.6 seconds left in overtime at DeGol Arena.
“To be able to come back that way, hopefully that gives these guys confidence and a blueprint to understand what it’s going to take,” Krimmel said after his team improved to 6-5 in the conference, moving into fourth place and just two in the loss column behind the Northeast Conference leaders. “That momentum, we’ve got to be able to carry it on.”
Cohen scored his 500th point of the season and finished with game highs of 27 points and 11 rebounds. Max Land and Brad McCabe combined for five 3-pointers and scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, as the Red Flash improved to 9-14 overall.
St. Francis might have averted a potential spiral by rallying to pull out the game, which had an early tipoff and was telecast on ESPNU.
“We won,” Land said with a sheepish grin, “so I’m not going to worry about that.”
Down 57-40 when the Pioneers’ Joey Reilly made a 3-pointer at the 11:50 mark of the second half, St. Francis began to make a run when Land passed to freshman guard Cam Gregory in the corner for 3 to get the margin to 10 with 7:38 left in regulation. Less than a minute later, Cohen found McCabe out of the post in the same corner for another trey.
Freshman defensive specialist Wisler Sanon hit all three shots after being fouled shooting a 3-pointer to cut it to a three-point game, and Gregory made a shot to make it 68-67.
McCabe tied it at 70 on a free throw after he drew an over-the-back foul chasing down a long pass and missed shot with 19.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
“We figured it out. To come out and win from down 17 points, we’ve got to take that momentum and turn it around (for Saturday’s home game with) Merrimack,” McCabe said.
Sanon forced a 17-foot fadeaway by Nico Galette that was off to push the game into overtime.
“Wisler and Cam with about 10 minutes to go did a fantastic job of coming in and changing the intensity,” Krimmel said.
The teams exchanged leads in the extra session before Cohen got the ball at the left elbow for the first time all night, pump-faked, drove and banked in a 4-foot fall-away with 3.6 seconds to go that turned out to set the final after Galette missed a desperation 3 at the buzzer.
“I was going to shoot it (from the elbow) and (the defender) flew at me, so I pulled it right back and tried to make a play,” Cohen said.
The Red Flash’s 6-foot-10 junior standout was 2-for-9 from the floor when Krimmel pulled him for 6:30 of the second half. After his reinsertion at the 11-minute mark, he was 9-for-9.
“I was disappointed in myself. I was letting the team down. I was just sitting there, waiting,” Cohen said. “Whenever I went back in, I was going to try to make a difference.”
St. Francis has played the entire year without senior forward Myles Thompson, and reserve guard Zahree Harrison has been out since the seventh game.
Both had surgery and neither will be on the court the rest of the year.
Freshman guard Landon Moore broke his hand in a mid-January win over Long Island when he scored 22. He’s also had surgery and might be back in time for the NEC tournament.
“When Landon came out, he was averaging 18 points a game,” Krimmel said. “You take one player out of the rotation, they’ve got to be more intentional about learning to play with each other. We went 17 games with that rotation more or less. The tough thing was we had a four-game road swing against some really good basketball teams and trying to figure it out in that situation. It takes time.”
Sacred Heart used a 19-4 run over the last 6:53 of the first half to go into the locker room with a 38-29 lead.
Two McCabe 3-pointers to open the scoring ignited the Red Flash on an 11-0 run in the first 2:58 of the game. However, that lead evaporated as the Red Flash were only 7-of-20 from the field the rest of the half.
Saint Francis (PA) hosts the Merrimack Warriors after Josh Cohen scored 27 points in Saint Francis (PA)'s 78-76 overtime win against the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Saturday's game will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams. The Warriors won the last matchup 70-66. Saint Francis (PA) is 6-5 against the NEC, and Merrimack is 8-4 against conference opponents.
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