FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Evidently, the University of Saint Francis forgot to pack its ‘A’ game when it returned from two Top 25 upset wins in Florida earlier this month. That’s right, the No. 19 Cougars dropped a 63-61 decision to Aquinas College on Friday afternoon, a team that had only won three of tis first 14 games.
The Saints certainly didn’t play like a three-win team outscoring the Cougars 33-15 from 3-point range, outscoring USF in bench points 39-13 and rallying from a 40-34 deficit to pull off the upset at Hutzell Athletic Center. AC became the first visitor to win at HAC this season after the Cougars had won their first six home games of the season. The USF loss also snapped a four-game win streak for the Cougars, who had won four consecutive games against NAIA Top 25 teams.
Though USF outshot AC in overall shooting making 24 shots to AC’s 22, the Saints shot .440 from 3-point range hitting 11-of-25 3-pointers. USF shot .357 from the arc hitting just 5-of-14 3-point attempts.
AC led by as many as seven points in the first half, 29-22 with 4:08 to play. USF had trimmed the deficit to three, 34-31 by halftime. And the Cougars continued what they started by outscoring the Saints 9-0 to take a 40-34 lead with 14:57 to play in the game. After David Miller‘s score from the paint gave USF that six-point lead, neither team scored for over the next two-plus minutes.
A Jesse Hillis three-point play got the Saints’ offense going at the 12:21 mark cutting the USF lead to three, 40-37. After two ties at 44 and 54, AC took the lead for good on a Hillis 3-pointer, 57-54, with 5:08 to play. USF never led or tied the game again scoring just seven points in the final five-plus minutes. AC only managed six points during the same span of time.
The Cougars got as close as one point once at 57-56 when Jeff Reynolds scored at 5:05. Chandler White drew USF within two with 2:22 to play and after two Zezva Liluashvili free throws with eight seconds, Austin Compton scored to finish the scoring with three seconds to play. Liluashvili was fouled, and missed with 2.5 seconds left. Compton got off a half-court shot, but it was off target.
USF closes its non-conference season on Sunday in a 4 p.m. game at Lincoln College in Lincoln, Ill.