Loretto, PA – Keystone College's men's basketball team hit the road on Thursday night to challenge Division I St. Francis University in the Red Flash's home opener, but despite a gutsy battle from the Giants throughout the full 40 minutes of play, St. Francis emerged with a 102-69 victory. The Red Flash picked up their first win of the season to improve to 1-2 while the Giants (0-2), who got a game-high 25 points from Duncan Lunsford, will now look for their first win of the year in next Tuesday's conference opener.
St. Francis scored the first 10 points of Thursday night's contest before Jesse Longmire connected on a three-pointer to make it a 10-3 game 3:28 into the game. After Longmire made a jumper to cut the host's lead to 19-8 with at the 14:29 mark, the Red Flash embarked on a 21-2 run to hold a 40-10 advantage with 9:17 remaining in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Keystone countered with game's next 14 points, with Duncan Lunsford netting eight of those points, as the Giants trimmed trimmed their deficit to 40-24 with 7:07 left in the first half. St. Francis extended their lead to 43-24 before back-to-back field goals from Lunsford and Dan Candemeres narrowed Keystone's deficit to 43-28 with 5:52 left on the clock, but the Red Flash outscored the visitors 19-7 for the rest of the period to hold a 62-35 lead at halftime.
Earl Brown led all scorers with 20 points while corralling nine rebounds in the opening 20 minutes of play for St. Francis, who also got nine points from Ollie Jackson in the first stanza. The Red Flash was outstanding from the floor in the half, going 24-32 (75 percent) on field goal attempts including a 6-10 effort from three-point land.
Lunsford paced Keystone with 14 first-half points to go along with four rebounds. Longmire added 10 points in the half while Miles Dargan netted six points. The Giants connected on 32.4 percent of their field goal attempts in the period and held a 7-4 advantage in offensive rebounds despite being outrebounded by a 24-13 margin overall.
St. Francis extended their lead to 73-41 4:46 into the second half before Keystone used an 14-5 spurt to cut their deficit to 22 points at 78-55 midway through the period when Deion Monroe converted an old-fashioned three-point play. The Red Flash answered by scoring seven of the game's next nine points to hold an 85-57 advantage with 7:26 left on the clock and outscored the Giants 18-12 the rest of the way to account for the final score.
Earl Brown finished with a double-double on 24 points and a game-high 12 rebounds to lead St. Francis, who shot 56.9 percent from the field on the night including a 10-25 (40 percent) effort from downtown. Greg Brown added 13 points, seven boards, and a game-high six assists while Jackson (12) and 2013-14 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year Malik Harmon (11) also reached double-figures for the hosts.
The Red Flash, who held a 53-33 advantage on the glass for the game, went 18-27 (66.7 percent) from the free throw line
Lunsford led all players with 25 points on the evening while corralling a team-best eight boards for Keystone on the night while Longmire contributed 18 points. Dargan chipped in nine points for the Giants, who shot 32.9 percent from the field in the loss while going 6-33 (18.2 percent) from beyond the arc and 15-22 (68.2 percent) from the stripe. The visitors also held a 10-9 edge in offensive rebounds for the game.
Keystone forced St. Francis into 15 turnovers on the night while giving the ball away just 11 times as a team and held a 9-4 advantage in steals for the game lead by three takeaways apiece from Lunsford and Monroe.
Keystone will open Colonial States Athletic Conference play next Tuesday night with a key, early season showdown at Gwynedd Mercy University. Opening tipoff between the Giants and Griffins is slated for 7:00 p.m. in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.