Top-Seeded St. Francis Claims 2025 Men's Basketball Tournament Title
JOLIET, Ill. --- Aided by a balanced scoring attack, top-seeded University of St. Francis claimed its first Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament title in six years on Saturday night. The Fighting Saints did so by ruining No. 7 seed Governors State University's plan of pulling off its third straight upset in the tournament with a 73-63 victory.
Four of five USF starters scored in double figures, all of which came in a range between 10 and 14 points. St. Francis also had another three players contribute at least six points off the bench. Topping the list was Rahmel Davis with 14 points and six rebounds. Merrick Small and Delshawn Simms provided another 12 points each, with Aitor Anabitarte chipping in 10 markers.
Small and Anabitarte also tied for team-high rebounding honors with nine caroms each. That enabled St. Francis to also win the rebounding battle, 35-26.
Governors State's Vincent Davis led all scorers and rebounders with his double-double of 20 points and 11 boards. Vincent Mayes was next in line with 11 points.
Both teams totaled 23 field goals in the contest, but USF held the advantage in three-pointers going 7-for-14 compared to GSU's 2-for-10 mark. The Saints also outscored the Jaguars 20-15 at the foul line, where the guests shot just 65.2 percent (15-of-23).
The game was tight for much of the first half with both seven ties and another seven lead changes before St. Francis used a 9-3 run over the final 3:45 of the half to open up a 35-28 lead at the break.
That advantage eventually swelled to as high as 18 points (59-41) at the 9:14 mark only to have Governors State make things interesting in the end.
The Jaguars would put together an 18-6 run over the next seven minutes to pull within six points at 65-59 with 2:14 remaining, but that would be as close as Governors State would get the rest of the night. USF was able to seal the championship by making just enough free throws to claim victory as the Saints' final nine points all came at the foul line in the closing 5:23.
St. Francis (25-5) continues its run in the postseason at the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round in two weeks (March 14-15) and will be joined by regular-season co-champion Indiana University Northwest in the next round. The RedHawks claimed the league's second automatic berth to the Opening Round by virtue of the Saints matching their regular-season co-championship with the tournament title and IUN securing the No. 2 seed.
The complete results follow:
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Game #1: No. 1 seed St. Francis 65, No. 8 seed St. Ambrose 59
Game #2: No. 5 seed Olivet Nazarene 75, No. 4 seed Indiana South Bend 73
Game #3: No. 7 seed Governors State 104, No. 2 seed Indiana Northwest 101 (OT)
Game #4: No. 6 seed Calumet St. Joseph 73, No. 3 seed Saint Xavier 70
Thursday, February 27, 2025 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #5: No. 1 seed St. Francis 72, No. 5 seed Olivet Nazarene 69
Game #6: No. 7 seed Governors State 72, No. 6 seed Calumet St. Joseph 67
Saturday, March 1, 2025 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #7: No. 1 seed St. Francis 73, No. 7 seed Governors State 63