Winning is just a little bit easier when you make eight more threes than your opponent, a fact the St. Francis Red Raiders proved on Monday. They walked away with a 56-49 win over St. Mary. That's another feather in the cap for St. Francis, who also won these teams' last head-to-head.
Jeremiah Neely was his usual excellent self, scoring 17 points along with six rebounds. He hasn't dropped below 17 points for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Leyton Roberts, who scored 11 points along with three steals.
Several Lancers players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Griffin Smith, who scored 19 points. Will Szablewski was another key contributor, scoring eight points along with 11 rebounds and three steals.
Even though they lost, St. Mary's smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. This was only their eighth loss (out of 12 games) when they hit their own glass that hard.
The victory makes it two in a row for St. Francis and bumps their season record up to 7-8. As for St. Mary's, they are on a four-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 5-10.
St. Francis will look to defend their home court on Wednesday against the Marauders at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up seven on Monday. As for St. Mary's, they will head out on the road to challenge the Crusaders at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The timing is sure in Canisius' favor as the squad sits on five straight wins at home while the Lancers have been banged up by three consecutive losses on the road.
