CHICAGO -- University of St. Francis could not shake itself out of its recent offensive doldrums and ran into a buzzsaw Tuesday night as host East-West University handed the Saints their third straight loss with a 86-65 verdict at the Fosco Community Center on Chicago's near west side.

The Saints (1-3), who have not scored more than 66 points in their last three road losses after an impressive season-opening 94-84 win at home last Wednesday over Calumet College of St. Joseph, committed a total of 17 first-half turnovers and gave up 9 offensive rebounds to East-West (2-2) who built a 42-30 halftime lead.

East-West had capitalized on 14 USF turnovers in the game's first 12 minutes and opened up a 28-15 lead. After shooting 48 percent from the floor in the first half, USF slipped to just 41 percent in the second half and committed 11 more turnovers and never got the deficit down to single digits again. The Phantoms shot 54.8 percent (17-of-31) from the field in the second half and pulled away with their lead growing as big as 26 points at 78-52 with less than five minutes remaining.

"There were the turnovers and they just took us out of everything we wanted to do tonight," said Saints head coach Pat Sullivan, who missed in his third opportunity to gain career win No. 500. "Despite all of our struggles, I was proud of the way our kids played hard all the way until the end of the game." 

Sophomore guard Derek Ciezczak (Stagg H.S./Hickory Hills, IL) led the Saints with 14 points. Senior guard/forward Tristan Therkield (Richards H.S./Oak Lawn, IL) added 12 points and 6 rebounds and junior forward Justin Richmond (Highland CC/Waukegan, IL) contributed 9 points and a team-high 8 rebounds.

East-West got 23 points from Cliff Manning, 13 from Leo Baylor and 10 from Dennis Murphy.

The Saints travel to Davenport, Iowa, this weekend and open play Friday evening in the St. Ambrose Pepsi Challenge against Grace College (Ind.).

NOTES:  Sophomore guard Billy Hubly (Elk Grove H.S./Elk Grove, IL) sat out the East-West game with an ankle injury.  Junior college transfer point guard Contino Hunter (Olive-Harvey College/Chicago, IL) made his USF debut after missing the first three games due to the flu.