Men's Basketball Upset by St. Francis, 73-63

Jan. 10, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CT - Senior forward Robert Hines had a game-high 23 points and grabbed ten rebounds, but Bass Yessoufou added 16 points to lead the St. Francis College Terriers to a 73-63 upset over Sacred Heart University in a Northeast Conference game Thursday night.

St. Francis, 4-12 overall and 1-4 in the NEC, took a quick 8-2 lead. A Hines three pointer with 5:53 left in the first half gave the Terriers a ten-point edge at 27-17.

Trailing by 12, 34-22, with 3:00 left in the half, the Pioneers used a quick flurry to close the gap. A couple of hoops by sophomore Ryan Litke (Windsor, CT) and one by senior Brice Brooks (Silverdale, WA), along with a couple of free throws by Gene Pettway (Bridgeport, CT) shaved the Terrier lead to four at 34-30. St. Francis took a six point lead into the locker room thanks to a layup by Sami Pekkola with :09 left after and offensive rebound.

The Terriers held the lead for much of the second half as well, but a Brice Brooks layup cut the SFNY lead to 56-53 with 6:44 left and Litke tied it with a three :30 later. With 5:29 left, Brooks hit a pair of free throws to give Sacred Heart a 58-57 lead.

Back-to-back hoops by Hines helped the Terriers regain a 61-58 lead with 4:23 to go. Litke knotted the score again with a trey. It didn't last long. A Yessoufou layup with 3:29 left made it 63-61. Hines increased it to four points with a hoop after Corey Hassan missed a jumper on the next SHU trip down the floor.

Chauncey Hardy cut the lead back to two at 65-63 with a pair of free throws with 2:05 remaining, but the Pioneers would never get closer. Yessoufou was fouled and made one of two for St. Francis. Litke missed a three for the Pioneers and Ricky Cadell was fouled for the Terriers. He made both tries to put the lead to 69-63 and effectively put the Pioneers away.

Litke led Sacred Heart, 6-10 and 3-2, with a career-high 19 points, while Brooks had 14. Drew Shubik finished with ten points and two steals. The two thefts ties him with Omar Wellington for the all-time SHU lead with 169.

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