By Missy Grimes

3 18 2025

Saint Francis (16-17) at Alabama State (19-15)
Date | Time	Tuesday, March 18, 2025 | 6:40 p.m.
Location	Dayton, Ohio | University of Dayton Arena
Television	truTV (Spero Dedes, play-by-play; Jim Spanarkel, color analyst; Jon Rothstein, sideline)
Live Stats	NCAA
Printable Notes	Saint Francis | Alabama State
Stats	Saint Francis | Alabama State | Northeast Conference
Social Media	@RedFlashMBB  | #BELIEVE | @RedFlashMBB | Facebook

SELECT GAME NOTES VS. ALABAMA STATE (FULL GAME NOTES PDF) 

FRANKIES TIDBITS IN A FLASH
• One hundred and 35 days since opening the 2024-25 campaign at the University of Dayton, Saint Francis returns to Dayton to play in the NCAA First Four against Alabama State. The Red Flash is the first team to start the season at Dayton and return to the University of Dayton Arena for the NCAA Tournament. Saint Francis is also the fifth team to play a game in Dayton and then return to kick off the NCAA Tournament, joining Coppin State (2008), Winthrop (2010), Vanderbilt (2016), and Saint Bonaventure (2018). Saint Francis wants to join Winthrop and Saint Bonaventure to win a First Four game after playing in Dayton during the regular season.
• Saint Francis and Alabama State will meet for the first time and mark the first SWAC school the Red Flash has played. In addition, the winner of this game will earn its first NCAA Tournament win.
• It marks the 13th time a Northeast Conference team will play in the opening games of the NCAA Tournament. The conference is 7-5 in this round and has won the last two times after FDU defeated Texas Southern 84-61 on March 15, 2023, and Wagner defeated Howard 71-68 on March 19, 2024. FDU went on to record a win against top-seed Purdue in the next round in 2023 for the only win by an NEC team past the opening round.
• The NEC is 2-1 against the SWAC in the NCAA Tournament. Mount St. Mary’s (2021) and FDU (2023) played Texas Southern, and FDU also played Prairie View A&M (2018). FDU recorded both wins.
• Saint Francis is making its second NCAA Tournament appearance and first since it lost to No. 2 Arizona 93-80 on March 14, 1991. The Red Flash defeated Fordham 70-64 in an NCAA Play-in Game in Loretto on March 6, 1991, but that does not count as an official NCAA win. While it will be Saint Francis’ second NCAA appearance, the Red Flash has also participated in the National Invitation Tournament four times (1954, 1955, 1958, and 2019). The 1954 and 1955 teams were led by Maurice Stokes, who was named the unanimous Most Valuable Player in the 1955 NIT. In addition, Saint Francis participated in the CollegeInsiders.Com Postseason Tournament in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The last postseason win for the Red Flash was a 78-76 win against Jacksonville in the CIT on March 14, 2017.
• Saint Francis head coach Rob Krimmel is in his 13th season as the head coach at Saint Francis. The first game in the NCAA Tournament will be Krimmel’s 399th game as the Red Flash head coach and his first in the NCAA Tournament. Krimmel, who came to Loretto in the fall of 1996 as a freshman and has never left, has been a part of nearly 850 games as a player, assistant coach, or head coach in the last 29 years.
• The game-winner between Saint Francis and Alabama State advances to face Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Lexington, Ky.

AN SFU WIN WOULD
• Notch its first NCAA Tournament win in program history
• Move onto the NCAA First Round against Auburn in Lexington, Ky., on Thursday
• Become the third straight NEC team to win a First Four game
• Help the NEC improve to 8-5 in the First Four
•Notch its seventh straight win and four straight road win
• Continue the team’s vacation as head coach Rob Krimmel calls this experience

HOW WE GOT HERE
• Penn Hills represents. Sophomore Daemar Kelly hit the go-ahead basket with 9.8 seconds left, and junior Chris Moncrief recorded a steal in the waning seconds to help seal a 46-43 win against top-seed CCSU  in the NEC Championship Game on March 11. Kelly and Moncrief both grew up in the Pittsburgh area and played on the Penn Hills YMCA team together when Moncrief was in fourth grade and Kelly in third grade
• Saint Francis’ largest lead in the game was four points and CCSU’s was two points.
• Freshman Juan Cranford, Jr. led the way with 14 points and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Junior Riley Parker joined him on the all-tournament team.

NEC TOURNAMENT FACTS
• Saint Francis won all three games by three points. A tie into head coach Rob Krimmel, who’s jersey number was No. 33 when he was a player.
• Saint Francis had to beat two teams (Wagner and CCSU) that swept the regular season meetings against the Red Flash. Before the NEC Quarterfinals win against Wagner, Saint Francis had never returned to win a tournament game against a team that swept its squad in the regular season in seven tries.
• The Frankies scored 175 points in three games to win the NEC Tournament. The 1991 team, the only team to win an NEC Tournament, scored 193 points in two games.
• The 43 points allowed are the fewest the team has allowed in Krimmel’s  13 seasons, while the 46 points scored are the eighth fewest in his tenure.
• It was the first time the Red Flash won a game by not reaching 50 points since defeating Franciscan 44-38 on February 10, 1973.
• Saint Francis is the fourth No. 3 seed to win the NEC Championship, joining Monmouth (1996, 2006) and LIU (2013). The 2006 Monmouth team is the only other No. 3 seed to upset the top seed, and the 1996  Monmouth and 2013 LIU squads were the higher seed in the title bout.

TRENDING UP
• In the locker room after the regular season finale against Chicago State, head coach Rob Krimmel told the team that they had just won three straight games and that to win an NEC Championship, the team would have to win another three in a row. The team accomplished that to win its first Northeast Conference Championship since 1991. The six-game winning streak is the longest since the 2019-20 team won eight games leading up to the regular season finale.
• Since there is now a common bond with the 1991 team, that team won seven straight games, including the postseason. The seventh victory was a 70-64 win against Fordham in the NCAA Play-in Game between the NEC and the Patriot League. That team then lost to Arizona in the NCAA Tournament first round.
• Freshman Juan Cranford, Jr. averaged 15.0 points per game in the three games of the NEC Tournament. He became the fourth freshman to win NEC Tournament MVP honors. The freshman was the team’s leading scorer in the final two games, scoring 20 points against LIU and 14 points against CCSU. Since returning to the starting lineup, Cranford has been averaging 11.0 points, 4.7 points, and 2.5 assists for the game in the last 10 tilts, and the Red Flash is 8-2 in that stretch. He has scored double figures in seven of the 10 games, had at least five rebounds four times, and dished out at least four assists in that stretch.
• Junior Chris Moncrief was the other player who started the momentum in the last 10 games when he joined the starting lineup against Le Moyne on February 2. The junior is averaging 11.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game in that stretch. He has six 10+ point games, four games with at least five rebounds, and seven games with multiple assists. He had a career-high 25 points at Le Moyne on February 20 and just missed a double-double after finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds against FDU on February 22.
• Sophomore Daemar Kelly is averaging 10.0 points per game in the last 10 games, with two of his career-high 14 points in that stretch. Kelly, though, is also known for giving the opposing team’s offensive threat trouble. In the NEC Semifinals, he, with the help of junior Wisler Sanon II, held Malachi Davis (All-NEC first-team performer, second in NEC in scoring at 17.7 ppg.) to 5-for-20 shooting after holding him to 2-for-21 in the regular season meeting in Loretto on January 24.  The CCSU duo of Jordan Jones (NEC Player of the Year) and Devin Haid (All-NEC second team) combined 6-for-26 in the NEC title bout. He also guarded Jeff Planutis, an All-NEC performer, to a 3-for-12 performance in the regular season meeting in Loretto on January 10. The only All-NEC first-team performer he does not have stats against is his teammate, junior Riley Parker.
• Speaking of Parker, he had his five-game consecutive scoring streak snapped in the NEC Championship Game after finishing with six points. The last two times Parker was held to single digits, the next game, he had 19 points: at Wagner (January 20) and Le Moyne (February 20). Since he scored double figures for the first time this season against Penn State-Schuylkill on November 20, Parker has only been held to single digits six times and has three five-game streaks and a seven-gamer on his resume in double figures in points. He did go three straight games without a 10+ point game after his first streak, but since then, he has posted double figures in the next contest. Except for the first streak, the last three new streaks have started on the road.
• Since returning from an injury, junior Valentino Pinedo has posted double figures in 14 times in the 21 games since he fully returned (he returned against Maryland in a limited capacity before playing meaningful minutes against Franciscan on December 19 for the first time in five games. Pinedo is averaging 10.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in his last 20 games, with a career-high 24 points at Stonehill on February 15 and two double-doubles.

ON THIS DATE
• This will be the first time Saint Francis will have a game on March 18. It is the latest the Red Flash has played except for playing in the consolation game on March 19, 1955 in the NIT consolation game.
FUN FACTS SURROUNDING DATES AROUND THIS DATE
• Saint Francis lost to Dayton 79-73 in overtime on March 17, 1955 (70 years ago). Maurice Stokes notched a then program record 43 points in the overtime loss and first meeting against the Flyers.
• Saint Francis lost 96-91 in overtime against Cincinnati on March 19, 1955 (70 years ago). Stokes played his final game in a Frankies uniform and finished with 31 points, 24 rebounds and 10 assists. It was also the only time that Stokes and Jack Twyman played against each other in a college game. The two later become teammates after Stokes is taken by the Rochester Royals with the  second  pick in the NBA draft and Twyman went in the second round. The two Pittsburgh natives would become locked together in history after Stokes accident and Twyman became a care giver for the remainder of Stokes’ life. Tyman later said that “he had to become that someone” for Stokes, which has become a tagline for Saint Francis University.

COURTESY ST. FRANCIS ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS