One win. That’s the only thing that stands between the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers and their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.
On Saturday afternoon, the Terriers survived a taut first half to post a 62-48 home victory over the St. Francis (Pa.) Red Flash in an NEC tournament semifinal.
With the win, the Terriers (23-10) advanced to Tuesday night’s NEC championship game, which they will host against Robert Morris — winners over Bryant in the other semifinal.
“I was just very proud of our guys today,” Terriers coach Glenn Braica said. “We’ve won two playoff games and we beat two very good teams and we had to beat [both] for a third time in a [season], which is difficult to do.”
Senior forward Jalen Cannon led the Terriers with 20 points and 11 rebounds — his 20th double-double of the season — while senior guard Brent Jones (13 points) and junior forward Chris Hooper (11 points) also scored in double figures.
Hooper’s energy helped keep afloat a Terriers attack that was stuck in neutral in the first half, and after one sequence, he was acknowledged with cheers from the packed house.
“He helped us out a lot offensively,” Jones said. “He just posts [up] hard … I kept reminding Chris, always post [up], because the ball is always going to be in your hands coming from me.”
Although the Terriers ended up coasting to a victory, the game’s outcome was very much in doubt for a half.
Points were at a premium in the early going — at the under-8 media timeout, the two teams had combined for 27 total points on 11-of-33 (33.3 percent shooting). However, with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, the Terriers started to gain separation.
It started when Cannon scored on a putback off a Hooper miss, and on the Terriers’ next possession, Hooper converted a three-point play for a five-point lead.
Two free throws from the Red Flash (16-15) trimmed the lead down to three, but Cannon answered with a 3, then took a pass from Jones for a dunk to extend the lead to eight at 24-16, prompting Red Flash coach Rob Krimmel to call a timeout.
The lead eventually reached nine at 27-18, but the Red Flash fought to close the gap to three at halftime on a Malik Harmon 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
Robert Morris 66, Bryant 53
In Moon Township, Pa., Kavon Stewart scored 19 points, Rodney Pryor added 12, and No. 2 seed Robert Morris rallied to beat third-seeded Bryant to advance to the finals of the NEC Tournament against St. Francis Brooklyn.