JOLIET, Ill. --- The University of St. Francis men's basketball team did what it needed to do both on Saturday and to close out the regular season to seal a berth in next week's Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, earning a hard-fought 64-61 win over arch-rival Saint Xavier University in a defensive battle on Saturday afternoon at the Pat Sullivan Center.

Both teams struggled to find their offensive games on the day in a contest that featured seven ties and 12 lead changes, including four of the latter in the closing two-plus minutes.  Neither team led by more than seven points, that being SXU's advantage four minutes, ten seconds into the contest.  St. Francis led by as many as five points 94 seconds into the second half. 

USF (10-15, 9-11 CCAC) prevailed to extend its winning streak to a season-best four games, recording its lowest shooting percentages both from the field (.373, 22-of-59) and beyond the three-point arc (.235, 4-of-17) in a St. Francis victory this year.  Head coach Ryan Marks' club did, however, shoot a key .842 from the free-throw line (16-of-19).

The Saints came through when it mattered most with no shot being bigger than Te Jones' trey to put the home team up for good, 60-58, with 47 seconds remaining.  Rahmel Davis and Dakoda Joachim would add a pair of free throws each with 10 and four seconds remaining, respectively, to account for the final USF points.

Saint Xavier (16-12, 11-9) recorded the exact same numbers at the foul line as USF, but missed two of the three with 34 seconds to play, which could have tied the contest at 60-all.  The Cougars were held to a 20-of-57 overall shooting mark from the field (.351) and 5-of-21 accuracy from three-point range (.238) by St. Francis' defense. 

SXU did have one last opportunity to force a final tie, getting the ball with four seconds remaining and down by three points, but turned the ball over on the inbounds pass.

Davis came off the bench to lead the Saints in four categories.  He totaled 16 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks.  Jones collected 15 points and three of the team's four treys. 

Ben Kreitz, who had a big three-pointer in the opening half, recorded a career-high seven rebounds.

Andre Brandon and Cedric Johnson each netted a game-high 21 points for Saint Xavier with Brandon (10 rebounds) registering a double-double.

Notes: Prior to the start of the contest, the Saints recognized the seven senior members of their team, Jones, EJ Charles, Nadav Gerner, Lewis McGlasson, Casmir Ochiaka, Justin Phillips and Alex Pietrzak.  The latter also made his first collegiate start in the contest … Davis, who scored in double figures for the 12th straight game, tied his career high of nine rebounds.  He had the exact same figure in USF's last meeting against Saint Xavier on Jan. 17 … Jones hit for at least ten points for the sixth consecutive game … The Saints will open the eight-team CCCAC Tournament as the No. 7 seed and play at Indiana University Northwest on Wednesday at a time to be determined.   

Links to live coverage can be found at gofightingsaints.com/coverage. You can also keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on Twitter @USFSaints.