EASTON, Mass. (February 24, 2024) – Sophomore Tony Felder (Brockton, Mass.) scored a career-high 30 points as the Stonehill men's basketball team defeated Saint Francis (Pa.) University in a Northeast Conference matchup at Merkert Gym Saturday afternoon as the team celebrated six Skyhawk seniors.

The Skyhawks honored grad students Max Zegarowski (South Hamilton, Mass.) and Pano Pavlidis (Queens, N.Y.) as well as seniors Thatcher Stone (Winchester, Mass.), Will Rywolt (Barrington, R.I.), Jackson Benigni (East Hampton, Conn.), and Shane O'Dell (Schenectady, N.Y.) before today's win for their contributions to the men's basketball program.

LEADERS

• Felder was the game's leading scorer, knocking down 10 of his 19 shots to score a new career-high of 30 points while he also grabbed seven boards. Felder finished with a team-high three assists and zero turnovers in 34 minutes on the court.
• Pavlidis led the Skyhawks on the glass with nine rebounds to go with seven points and a team-high two blocks.
• The Red Flash were led by Gestin Liberis who scored 12 points and Eli Wilborn who had a game-high 11 rebounds and eight points for Saint Francis.

FIRST HALF

• Stonehill scored the first five points of the game and jumped out to an 18-4 lead with Felder scoring nine points less than eight minutes into the first half.
• Pavlidis scored five straight points on a free throw and two made baskets before a Felder three-pointer gave the Skyhawks their largest lead of the half, a 22-point advantage, 45-23 with 1:13 left in the half.
• The Skyhawks led the entire first half, shooting the ball at a 63% (17-27) clip as Felder's 17 first-half points catapulted Stonehill to a 45-25 lead at the break.

SECOND HALF

• Stonehill started the final 20 minutes the same way it started the first 20 minutes, scoring five points as Felder made two more field goals to give the Skyhawks a 25-point lead, 50-25.
• Saint Francis finally began to cut into the Stonehill lead, converting on three field goals that sprung a 13-2 run for the Red Flash, trailing by 14 with just over 10 minutes left in the game.
• Felder continued to fuel the Stonehill offense with a spinning, turnaround jumper to keep the Skyhawks ahead by 15, 58-43.
• An 11-3 outburst from the Saint Francis offense made the game interesting with under four minutes to play, but Benigini responded with a three-pointer from the wing to half the Red Flash run.
• Stonehill closed out the game by knocking down eight of its 10 free throw attempts down the stretch, winning the game 72-63.

NOTEWORTHY

• Stonehill improves to 2-2 all-time against Saint Francis, with both teams being 2-0 on their home courts since the Skyhawks joined the NEC last season.
• With today's game, head coach Chris Kraus has now been at the helm of Stonehill men's basketball for 289 games, passing David McLaughlin for the second-most games as head coach in the program's 74-year history.
• The Skyhawks (2-12) now sit .5 games back of Saint Francis (3-12) in the conference standings for the eighth and final spot in the NEC playoffs as Stonehill still has two games left to play while the Red Flash have one game against Le Moyne remaining in the regular season.
• Felder's career-high of 30 points is the highest-scoring total for any Skyhawk this season.
• Stonehill is now 2-0 when wearing its alternate grey uniforms, both wins coming at Merkert Gym.
• This was the second game this season that the Skyhawks went wire-to-wire, holding the lead for the entire game. The first such game was against the University of Hartford on Dec. 17, a 71-44 win against the Hawks.

UP NEXT

• Stonehill is back at home on Thursday for the final game at Merkert Gym this season when Sacred Heart comes to town for a Northeast Conference matchup at 7 p.m.

Tickets for the 2023-24 men's and women's basketball season are on sale now and can be purchased at stonehillskyhawks.com/tickets.

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