NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- A.604 shooting mark from the field (32-of-53) and a .458 percentage from behind the arc (11-of-24) boosted the University of St. Francis men's basketball team to a 79-58 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over Holy Cross College on Saturday evening.  Three Saints produced at least 13 points en route to the win.  With the victory, St. Francis improves to 14-6 overall and 9-4 in league play.

St. Francis' 32 field goals and 11 three pointers led the Saints to having nine players reach the scoring column on the day.  Topping the list was Joffrey Nunnally, who was 8-of-11 from the field, 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe for a combined 22 points.  Dakoda Joachim (6-of-7, 3 three-pointers) and Merrick Small (6-of-6, 1 three-pointer) both sank six shots apiece from the field in recording 15 and 13 points, respectively, while Small led the way in both assists (4) and rebounds (9) for the visitors.

After USF won the race to 10 points with a 17-7 advantage to start the first half, the game quickly ballooned out of reach for the hosts after St. Francis connected on five of their remaining nine shots of the period to take a 16-point lead (41-25) into the halftime break.

The Saints continued their offensive pressure to begin the second half and pulled further away after making their first nine shot attempts over the final frame's first eight minutes.  USF would expand its advantage to as high 29 points at the 7:19 mark over Holy Cross, who would never get the deficit under 21 points the rest of the night.

As a team, the Saints out-boarded Holy Cross 34-25.  Damarcies Moores and Connor Casper joined Small on the defensive end in producing six rebounds apiece, while Ibrahim Mobayed accounted for four.

Up Next
The Saints have the next three days off before traveling to St. Ambrose University (Iowa) on Wednesday (Feb. 4) in another Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference contest.  The game will begin at 7 pm in the Lee Lohman Arena.

You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.