JOLIET, Ill. -- The University of St. Francis men's basketball team fell victims to a big second half from Indiana University Northwest to suffer its sixth loss of the 2025-26 campaign with an 81-78 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference decision on Saturday afternoon.  The loss drops the Fighting Saints to 11-6 on the season and 6-3 in conference play.

The RedHawks used a 70.8 percent shooting effort in the second half (17-of-24), including seven three-pointers, to outscore the Saints 53-37 after the break and pull away for the three-point win.

Head coach Ryan Marks' club began the contest with a 13-0 lead in the opening four minutes of play before Indiana Northwest (7-11, 4-5 CCAC) could get on track.  The RedHawks eventually did late in the first half with an 11-0 run in the half's last three minutes to cut a 24-point deficit to 13 before the intermission, marking the score at 41-28.

From there, the RedHawks slowly continued to climb their way back into the game at the start of the second half before using a 10-2 run to push the score to a two-point margin (58-56) with just over ten minutes to play in the contest.  USF held between a one- and four-point advantage over the next five minutes until a breakaway layup boosted the RedHawks to their first lead of the game (70-69) with 4:45 to play.  The two teams would trade baskets the remainder of the way, but a late 78-77 USF lead was erased after an Indiana Northwest layup followed by a USF turnover resulted in two RedHawk free throws in the game's final seconds to finalize the score at 81-78.

For the game, a total of three St. Francis players scored at least ten points.  Merrick Small led the way with 20 points, while Joffrey Nunnally scored in double figures (19 points) for the thirteenth time this season with his 6-for-10 performance from the floor and 5-of-8 showing from beyond the arc.  Damarcies Moore added 11 additional markers and a game-high 10 rebounds to the Saints' total of 33.

IUN's Ladaion Barnes led the guests' second-half charge, scoring 33 of his 44 points for the RedHawks after the intermission, including going 7-for-8 from beyond the arc.

Up Next
USF returns to conference action on Wednesday, Jan. 21 when it travels to Elgin, Ill. to take on Judson University at 7:30 pm.      

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