WHITING, Ind. --- Despite struggling to find its shot for much of the night, the University of St. Francis men's basketball team was on the verge of escaping with its second win in three days. Instead, Calumet College of St. Joseph's Wyatt Hughes, at the top of the key, recorded his only three-pointer of the night as the buzzer sounded to send the hosts to a 59-58 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory on Wednesday night.

Just eight seconds earlier, EJ Charles gave the Saints (1-1, 0-1 CCAC) only their second lead of the closing half with a pair of free throws to break a 56-all tie. USF also forced ties at 54 and 56 on free throws from Joey Buggemi and Russell Tillery.

Things looked good early on for the Saints, opening up a 12-5 lead in the first five minutes of the contest on 4-of-9 shooting. But from there, USF went cold, hitting just four of its 24 shots from the field the rest of the half to go into the break trailing 27-22.  A closing 8-0 run by the Crimson Wave (2-2, 1-1) created the five-point margin. That came over a nearly six-minute span after USF scored its last field goal of the half at the 5:57 mark and added its final point before intermission on a Charles free throw to give the Saints a 22-19 with 5:34 to play.

USF looked to turn things around out of the gate after the break and did just that scoring nine of the first 10 points with Buggemi's three-pointer at 16:20 giving the Saints their only lead until late at 31-28. Calumet St. Joseph did not let that deficit last long and actually built its lead back up to seven points (39-32) at the 12:22 mark. St. Francis eventually whittled that away before Wyatt ruined the Saints' night.

After shooting just 24.2 percent in the opening half (8-of-33), the Saints upped their game by 15 percentage points in the second half, but still finished at an overall .304 mark (17-of-56). Head coach Ryan Marks' club did hit five three-pointers in each half (10-of-23) to avoid facing any larger deficits than the seven-point ones the Crimson Wave built during the night. For the game, Calumet St. Joseph shot an even 39 percent from the field (23-of-59).

Other numbers that led to the Crimson Wave victory included a 20-5 advantage in points off turnovers and a 30-18 lead in bench points. The Saints won the rebounding battle 45-36 thanks in part to Charles' 11 boards and another eight from Reihana Maxwell-Topia.

Darius Wright came off the bench to lead the Saints in scoring with his 13 points. Buggemi and Carlos Tovias added 11 points each. 

Calumet St. Joseph, which made just five three-pointers in the contest, gained 12 points from Noel Mpie and 11 each from Wyatt and Oshawn Lee. Wyatt registered a double-double by sharing game-high rebounding honors with Charles.   

Up Next
The Saints close out their three-game week with another conference matchup on Saturday at the Sullivan Center, where they will face Trinity International University. Tip off is 7 pm.

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