LORETTO, Pa. – The Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball team got to within two in the fourth quarter but Saint Francis was able to keep the Knights at bay over the final eight minutes to win 73-64.

Head coach Peter Cinella said post game of his team's performance, "Overall, we did good things, -- rebound, keeping turnovers down (15) and taking away Saint Francis U's three-point shots. However, we did not make enough open shots. We have to do a better job of shooting the basketball and making plays in key situations."

Saint Francis U (15-13, 12-5 NEC) outscored Fairleigh Dickinson (8-20, 6-11 NEC) 21-14 after the Knights made it a 52-50 game with 8:15 left in the fourth on an Amina Markovic bucket.

Markovic finished with her sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and 14 rebounds.
 
The Red Flash went on a 13-5 run after it was 52-50 to make it 65-55 with 2:29 left in the game. Courtney Zezza scored the final six points of the run and finished with 16 points.
 
The Knights were able to get the lead to four with 4:32 to left when Brianna Thomas connected on a corner triple to make the score 59-55. Zezza's personal 6-0 run got the lead to 10 for the Red Flash.
 
Late in the second quarter, the Red Flash took the lead for good on a Jessica Kovatch three-pointer. However, the Knights would hang around throughout the third and fourth quarters. The Red Flash lead would only get to double digits three and the lead stayed in double figures for a total of 1:21.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson was plus-13 on the glass but allowed 34 points in the paint and 25 fast-break points to Saint Francis U. Fairleigh Dickinson had only allowed 15 points total in transition in its last five games combined.

Cinella added on his team's transition defense, "We had been pretty good in taking away transition. A lot of those points came from us missing easy shots. We knew we scored a lot of points inside last game and thought that would help with our transition defense."

Saint Francis U also made more field goals (26-23) and free throws (13-9) than Fairleigh Dickinson. Fairleigh Dickinson was able to keep Saint Francis U to only eight three-pointers made in the game.
 
Saint Francis enjoyed a 37-31 lead at the halftime intermission. Fairleigh Dickinson was able to hold Saint Francis to 4-of-15 from three in the first half but allowed the Red Flash to shoot 11-of-11 from two-point range.

Courtney Blankenship had 12 first-half points to lead all scorers, the freshman finished with 13. The Knights shot 31-percent in the first half despite going 3-of-13 from three-point range. The Knights finished at 30-percent for the game.
 
The Red Flash were led Katie Reese with 23 points and seven assists. Kovatch added 22 points.

Rainey Cox had nine points, four rebounds and two steals and played good defense on the perimeter. Lauren Francillon added six points and five boards. Natalie Zamora had eight points, six rebounds and was one of four Knights with three assists. 
 
The loss ensures that Fairleigh Dickinson will be either the seventh or eighth seed in the 2017 Northeast Conference Tournament. The easiest way that the Knights can finish in seventh is by beating Robert Morris on Monday night in Moon Township or if St. Francis Brooklyn losses at Mount St. Mary's on Monday.

Cinella finished with, "We have to find a way to finish the season strong. We played Robert Morris tough in the first meeting this season. Now we have to figure out how to be three points better this time.
 
The game at Robert Morris will start at 7 p.m. and can be watched live on NECFrontRow.com.