Crissy blog

St. Francis (Pa.) defeats Monmouth (NJ) 57-51

LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Jesse Steele scored 20 points and Monmouth (N.J.) used two second-half spurts to pull away from St. Francis (Pa.) 57-51 on Thursday night, splitting the season series.

After the game's fifth tie at 34-34, the Hawks (9-18, 5-10 Northeast Conference) went on an 8-0 run.

The Red Flash closed to 42-39 with 10:07 to go, then Monmouth used a 9-1 spurt to build an 11-point lead with 5:32 left.

St. Francis responded with a 10-2 run to make it 53-50 with 1:02 remaining. Marcus Ware hit a jumper and Steele made two free throws to push the lead back to seven.

The point total was the season's second-lowest for St. Francis (7-19, 5-10), which lost 57-44 at St. Francis (N.Y.) on Dec. 2.

Mike Myers Keitt added 12 points for the Hawks, who shot only 37 percent from the field (20 of 54) while avenging their 70-54 defeat Jan. 13.

Umar Shannon scored 13 to lead the Red Flash.