JOLIET, Ill. - The nationally 19th ranked University of St. Francis men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2019-20 season this Wednesday (Nov. 13) night as Calumet St. Joseph rallied from an early second-half 14-point deficit to pull out a come-from-behind 68-66 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) victory over the Saints at USF's Sullivan Center.
 

The loss drops USF's season record to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the CCAC while Calumet St. Joseph is now 2-2 overall with a 1-1 ledger in CCAC action.
 

Senior guard Jorden Thornton (SR/Hoffman Estates, Ill.) paced the Saints in scoring with 16 points and forward Lewis Holey (JR/Sydney, Australia) notched a double-double with a 10-points, 12-rebounds performance. Calumet St. Joseph was paced by Core'Von Lott's game-high 25 points while Germaine Roebuck tallied 20 points off the bench.
 

USF started the game by outscoring the Crimson Wave 13-2 before the visitors bounced back to close to within six points at 16-10 midway through the opening half. A 12-1 Saints' scoring run over the next seven minutes put USF up 28-11 and the hosts would go on to take a 40-26 advantage into the lockerroom at the break.
 

The final 20 minutes of action saw a 14-point USF lead (42-28) trimmed all the way down to a point (50-49) as the Crimson Wave outscored the Saints 21-8 in a nine-minute span. A bucket by CCSJ with 9:21 on the clock gave the Crimson Wave a 51-50 lead before the teams exchanged baskets as the contest would be deadlocked at 54-all with eight minutes remaining. The Saints managed to regain their lead with seven unanswered points to go up 61-54 with just under five minutes left to be played, but CCSJ gradually chipped away at its deficit to close to within a point at 66-65 with a minute to be played.
 

USF missed an opportunity to score on its offensive end with 35 seconds left as the Crimson Wave rebounded the Saints' missed shot and proceeded to score on their own end as Lott drilled a three-pointer with 19.8 seconds remaining on the clock to give CCSJ a 68-66 lead. The Saints called a timeout to set up a final play with 6.7 seconds left but guard Malik Bailey (SR/Tutwiler, Miss.) missed a jumper with a little over a second remaining and Holey's off-balance shot off an offensive board as the final horn went awry.  
 

The Saints totaled a 36.1 percent field goal percentage for the game by connecting on 22-of-61 from the floor. USF went 10-for-25 from beyond the three-point line to register a 40 percent success mark and converted 12-of-19 free throws for a 63.2 percentage. Calumet St. Joseph ended the game by making 23-of-50 shots for 46 percent and was only 20.8 percent in treys (5-24). The Crimson Wave went to the free throw line 23 times and made 17 for a 73.9 percent effiency rate.
 

Calumet St. Joseph posted a 36-34 edge in rebounding and committed 16 turnovers while the Saints registered 13 turnovers for the contest.
 

Up Next

USF travels to Trinity Christian this Saturday (Nov. 16) in CCAC action. Tipoff is at 3 p.m. (CT) inside TCC's DeVos Gymnasium.