St. Francis Brooklyn Wins 5th Straight--83-66 over Wagner

Story by Brandon Glogau

On Thursday night at the Pope Center, the St. Francis Brooklyn men’s basketball team, playing its best basketball of the season, was primed for back-to-back wins over local rival Wagner following last Saturday’s impressive 66-51 win on Staten Island. The Terriers (17-9; 11-2 NEC) did not disappoint their loyal fans, trouncing the Seahawks (8-16; 6-7 NEC) by a score of 83-66 for their fifth straight win, further tightening St. Francis’s hold on the top spot in the Northeast Conference.

St. Francis head coach Glenn Braica , who said he expected a “war” in the second leg of a home and home match-up against Wagner, is now 7-2 in his career against the Seahawks with a five-game win streak.

“We can’t look too much ahead. We have to take it one game at a time,” Braica said after the game. “Our minds are focused about tomorrow’s shoot around and practice, so we can prepare for our upcoming match-up against Sacred Heart.”

Braica, enjoying his finest season in five years at the small Brooklyn Heights college, pointed out that lately his guards have avoided turnovers, a cardinal sin.

“The main reason we’ve been having success the last couple of games is because we have done a lot better with our assist to turnover ratio and are doing a great job moving the ball,” Braica said.

Senior forward Jalen Cannon, who earlier in the week was named Men’s Division Player of the Week by the Met Basketball Writers Association, led the Terriers with 26 points and 12 rebounds and is now only the second player in NEC men’s basketball history to score more than 1,500 points and coral more than 1,000 rebounds. Junior Amdy Fall finished the game with 13 points and a game-high four blocks. Junior Tyreek Jewell chipped in 9 points while senior Brent Jones had 10 points and a season-high 10 assists.

St. Francis out performed Wagner in every category, finishing the game with 38 points in the paint versus 26 for Wagner and 17 points off of turnovers to the visitor’s 7. The Terriers also crashed the boards, scoring 15 second chance points and out-rebounding an opponent for the 18th time this season, besting the Seahawks on the boards 39-31. The St. Francis bench chipped in quality minutes, scoring 25 to Wagner’s 19 bench points.

The Seahawks had three players scoring in double digits led by Romone Saunders, with 16 points. Marcus Burton, Wagner’s leading scorer ( 4 of 12 from the field), was held to 12 points by the Terrier defense, while Corey Henson chipped in 11 points.

Underscoring the Terriers’ dominance, Wagner held a single lead for a total of 23 seconds in the second half as the home team sprinted out to an early 14-point lead then cruised to yet another dominant win. After opening the season with five losses St. Francis has now won 17 of its last 21 contests and hold a two game edge over Bryant (12-12, 9-4 NEC) in pursuit of only its third Northeast Conference regular season crown in thirty-four years of NEC play.

NEC Notes:
The Northeast Conference playoff picture has been volatile of late thanks to a couple of winning streaks. For the third straight week St. Francis remains alone in first place, followed by Bryant. Saint Francis, PA (14-10, 8-5 NEC) and Robert Morris (12-13; 8-5 NEC) are tied for third. After a 63-62 road victory over Robert Morris Thursday, LIU (11-13; 7-6 NEC)—riding a three game winning streak—has moved up into a fifth place, tied with Mount St. Mary’s (11-13; 7-6 NEC). Sacred Heart (12-14; 6-7 NEC) is also on a three-game win streak and is tied for the final NEC playoff spot with Wagner.

St. Francis Brooklyn is back in action at 4 p.m. today hosting Sacred Heart at the Pope. LIU is on the road, facing Saint Francis PA at 4 p.m. and Mount St. Mary’s at 7 p.m. on February 19 in Emmitsburg, MD.

PHOTO CAPTION: St. Francis forward Jalen Cannon has scored 92 points and pulled down 36 rebounds over the last 3 games.
PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Dea

Brandon Glogau is a sports reporter for The Seawanhaka, LIU Brooklyn’s school newspaper. At East Meadow High School in Long Island, Glogau was the girls/boys varsity basketball announcer as well as a sports reporter for the school newspaper.