Tag: Stefan Perunicic

Season At A Glance — St. Francis (NY)

This is the first of what will eventually be capsules for each of the NYC teams when I’m sure their season has concluded.

Team: St. Francis (NY)

Record: 15-15 (12-6 in the NEC); season ended by 80-72 loss to Quinnipiac in NEC Quarterfinals

Season High: Winning at Robert Morris on Jan. 28, 81-68 to go to 8-2 in NEC play.

Season Low: Losing at Colgate 65-63 to drop to 2-6 overall.

Really Good At: Defense — The Terriers finished second in the NEC in per possession defensive efficiency. They were also an excellent defensive rebounding team on most nights.

Struggled With: Turnovers — SFC finished 10th in the NEC in turnover percentage – in a generally turnover prone league. Young players moving into new roles sometimes struggled with trying to do too much. It got better as the season progressed.

Key Losses:

  • Stefan Perunicic (11.6 PPG, 42.4% from three)
  • Justin Newton (defense, toughness and maturity at the point guard position)

Key Returnees:

  • Akeem Johnson, Jr., F
  • Jalen Cannon, Fr., F
  • Brent Jones, Fr., G
  • Dre Calloway, Sr., G (returns after missing most of 2011-12 to injury)

Key Quotes:

“I’m really happy that I had an opportunity to work with them. I wish them the best of luck and it was a really good season for me.” — Stefan Perunicic

“We put [the freshman] in the gym at the beginning of the year it was like mice running around. They had a lot of energy, but it was in a lot of different directions. It still is, but we’re getting better.” — Glenn Braica

“He was thrown to the fire. Some nights he played great. Some nights he struggled, but it’s all going to be better for him in the future. We’re going to get a lot of bang for our buck next year because of what he went through this year. He’s a very talented kid. He’s a hard worker. He’s got the right attitude. He’s a good kid and I just think he’s going to get better and better.” — Braica on Brent Jones

Outlook: Very positive. The Terriers surprised everyone this season by earning a home NEC tournament game after being picked to finish 11th in the conference before the season began. It earned head coach Glenn Braica the Jim Phelan NEC Coach of the Year award and there was a legitimate argument to be made that rebounding machine Jalen Cannon could’ve been the NEC’s Freshman of the Year as well. The majority of the core will return and it should give SFC the chance to compete for a home playoff game and more next season. Braica said that he expects to start at a higher level next season and that the team should progress quicker. Both suggest a tough team to contend with in Brooklyn Heights next season.

St. Francis (NY) finds a new way to win

St. Francis (NY)’s stunning NEC season continued on Saturday, but it wasn’t the typical formula for the Terriers. Even though the shots weren’t falling, SFC found a way to come back from an eight-point halftime deficit and grit out a victory on their final shot. Travis Nichols’ short put back off an offensive rebound of Brent Jones’ miss gave St. Francis a 58-56 victory over Sacred Heart at the Pope Center.

“He missed the shot and I wanted it more and I went to go for it and it made it in,” Nichols said about the final play.

That final shot also put a damper on a stellar 21-point, 12-board performance from SHU’s Shane Gibson. The star shooting guard was chased by Stefan Perunicic most of the night on Perunicic’s final regular season game at home. It took Gibson 17 shots to get the 21 points and he also committed five turnovers. It was an assist to Luis Montes to tie the game at 56 that was Gibson’s biggest play of the game.

“I felt [Perunicic] did as good a job as you could do on [Gibson],” said SFC head coach Glenn Braica. “The kid’s a great player.”

Gibson was just one of four players that scored in the game for the Pioneers. A game after playing great against LIU Brooklyn Justin Swidowski struggled against SFC. That forced Dave Bike to go small and play zone, a strategy that worked surprisingly well against a cold-shooting Terriers squad. SFC shot just 6-24 from three in the game. The Terriers didn’t score from the field during the final seven minutes of the first half.

But unlike most games where SFC has struggled to shoot the ball, the Terriers fought through it. Akeem Johnson was big inside with 16 points on 5-9 shooting from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the line. Perunicic added 11, Jones 10 (on 13 shots) and Nichols eight key points, including to big threes and the game-winner.

“We starting settling for jump shots,” Braica said. “Then we got it inside a couple times. I thought it got us going. We really didn’t get great shots. They did a good job. … We kind of weren’t ourselves tonight. We didn’t hit shots.”

The Terriers are now guaranteed of playing at least one more game in the Pope Center this season in the quarterfinals of the NEC tournament. Due to their head-to-head victory over Robert Morris, SFC is currently the third seed and would host one of Quinnipiac, Central Connecticut or Monmouth.

Nichols is excited for the postseason.

“I know this is our year this year,” he said.

Advanced stats from Saturday’s NEC action

New York’s three NEC teams – Long Island Brooklyn, Wagner and St. Francis (NY) all scored wins in NEC play on Saturday. The Blackbirds are now tied with Central Connecticut State in first place at 4-0 and the Seahawks and Terriers are right behind at 3-1. All of the wins on Saturday were important, but there were some interesting statistical oddities in each of the games.

Continue reading “Advanced stats from Saturday’s NEC action” →

Both sides of the luck coin

There were seven games played by New York City area teams on Thursday night. St. Francis (NY) beat Quinnipiac 73-72 as Stefan Perunicic hit the game-tying layup, and game-winning free throw. Perunicic also scored his 1,000th point in the victory. Manhattan lost a real tough one to swallow as Dylon Cormier hit a three in the left corner on Loyola’s final possession in the Greyhounds’ 61-60 victory.

Continue reading “Both sides of the luck coin” →

Three thoughts: St. Francis (NY) vs. Albany

St. Francis (NY) returned to Brooklyn Heights for its first home game of the season against Albany on Monday night. The Terriers were unable to solve Albany’s three-guard attack and fell 76-64. The loss drops SFC to 3-7 overall. This was a 68-possession game, so both sides of the ball slipped up in this one. Here are three key takeaways from the game.

Continue reading “Three thoughts: St. Francis (NY) vs. Albany” →