Men's basketball: St. Francis hopes big win over Cardinal Stritch leads to more success

JOLIET – One game obviously doesn’t guarantee an immediate impact, but for a team that’s struggled to find its style this season, breaking the century mark and setting a season high for points certainly can help the cause.

That’s what the University of St. Francis men’s basketball team is hopeful for after it scored 62 points in the first half and claimed a 106-84 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over Cardinal Stritch University on Wednesday at the Sullivan Center.

USF (5-6, 3-4), which snapped a four-game losing streak, shot about as well from behind the 3-point line as it did from the floor overall, making 59.1% of its attempts and 20 of 35 3-pointers to give them a 57.1% total on those shots.

Coach Ryan Marks team only turned the ball over 10 times in the up-tempo game, while his players handed out 24 assists. The Saints had five players in double figures and 11 players scored points. The Saints got 51 points from the bench.

“Always at this time of the year, everybody is trying to find their rhythm,” Marks said. “Some teams in our league have already found it, but we haven’t quite found ours. We’ve had four or five games where we’ve done a considerable number of good things and a considerable number of not so good things.

“We’ve been talking about consistency, especially defensive consistency, and I thought our alertness was kind of reflective in the defensive energy. Stritch is a tremendously well-coached team, so the attention to detail was critical. I thought our carry-over on those things was the best it’s been in a while, and that’s encouraging.”

The Saints, whose previous best high mark was 93 points in a win over East-West on Nov. 30, figured to break that mark after making 22 of 33 shots in the first half, which included 11 of 17 from 3-point range, for a 62-48 lead over the Wolves (6-7, 2-4).

Leading the Saints were Malik Bailey (21 points, five 3-pointers), Cole Micek (19 points, four assists), Jorden Thornton (14 points, four 3-pointers), Carlos Tovias (11 points) and Arnold Agard (10 points).

“This is definitely exciting since we know that we’re capable of playing like this in every game,” Micek said. “I’m really happy for the guys who came off the bench to produce for us. When we’re moving the ball, getting in the paint and kicking it out and playing for each other, I think we’re really good. We know how to come together as a team and play for each other.”

Other Saints with key contributions were Joey Buggemi (nine points, five rebounds), Eric Ting (six points, seven assists), Mitch Kwasigroch (five points), Josh Chery (five points) and Lewis Holey (eight rebounds).

“Tonight was one of those games where everything was clicking, and it was just a great team effort,” Thornton said. “The energy was there, and of course it helps when you’re making shots. We were able to put together a full game, which we haven’t had in a while.”