JOLIET, Ill. - Five three-pointers in as many attempts in just over two minutes sparked a 20-2 first-half run and the University of St. Francis men's basketball team rolled from there in a 105-77 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over Trinity Christian College on Saturday (Jan. 18) afternoon at the Sullivan Center. The 105 points marked the second highest output of the season for the Saints, while the victory snapped a string of three straight setbacks by a combined 11 points.
 

Trailing 19-12 after the first seven minutes of the contest, Josh Chery (JR/Newark, NJ) started an 8-for-8 string of success from the field for USF (7-12, 5-8 CCAC) with an inside basket followed by a three-point play the next time down the court. Chery finished the day with a pair of season highs, matching his eight points with eight rebounds.  
 

The five three-pointers followed, beginning with a pair from Jarret Gmazel (SR/ Manhattan, Ill.) and then one each from Cole Micek (SR/Los Angeles, Calif.), Mitch Kwasigroch (SR/Manhattan, Ill.), and Carlos Tovias (JR/Corsicana, Texas). That turned the 19-12 deficit into a 32-21 advantage at the 9:21 mark. Gmazel added another basket after two Trinity Christian free throws to close out the eight consecutive field-goal run.
 

Trinity Christian (5-13, 1-10) would get the deficit back to single digits – 36-29 at the 5:26 mark – but only for 82 seconds as the Saints answered with another 16-5 surge to eventually take a 56-39 lead into the break. The Trolls threatened once in the second half, cutting an early 22-point deficit down to 10 (67-57 with 13:32 to play) before head coach Ryan Mark's club took the lead back up to as many as 32 points in the late going.
 

Eleven Saints in all scored at least five points with USF's bench outscoring Trinity Christian's 60-8. Pacing the Saints was starter Malik Bailey (SR/Tutwiler, Miss.) with 17 points, with the next three top contributors all coming off the bench. Gmazel and Tovias each put up 14 points with Tovias going a perfect 5-for-5 from the field on the afternoon, including four three-pointers. Gmazel also distributed five assists.
 

Micek came off the bench, as well, and tied starter Eric Ting (JR/Taoyuan, Taiwan) with 11 points.
 

Trinity Christian's TJ Lacey led all scorers with 30 points, while teammate James Pennington collected another 24 markers.
 

USF shot 58 percent from the field in the opening half (22-of-38), including 7-of-11 accuracy from three-point range, before cooling off after the break (33 pct., 11-of-33) to finish at 46.5 percent. Defensively, the Saints held Trinity Christian to 38.4 percent shooting (28-of-73).
 

Both teams shot very well from the foul line, combining to miss just five of 44 attempts, with the Saints going 25-of-27 (.926) and Trinity Christian hitting 14 of 17.
 

USF also turned over the ball just six times on the day.
 

Up Next

The Saints head to Indiana next week to face Indiana South Bend on Wednesday (Jan. 22) at 6 pm (CST) and then versus Indiana Northwest  next Saturday (Jan. 25) at 3 p.m. (CT) in a pair of league matchups.