CHICAGO, Ill. - University of St. Francis gave NCAA Division I Loyola Chicago all it could handle for over 30 minutes but finally ran out of steam and dropped a 63-46 exhibition game to the Ramblers Monday night at the Gentile Center on the Loyola campus.

USF (3-11) was playing its first game since Dec. 19 and was meeting the only NCAA Division I foe on its 2009-10 schedule. USF played the Ramblers toe-to-toe in the early going, overcoming an early 9-2 deficit to take a lead of 15-11 with 8:22 left in the opening half.

Loyola regained the lead at 16-15 and the Saints managed to keep the deficit to single digits for most of the rest of the first half. Loyola's biggest lead of the half was at 30-18 with 1:50 on the clock but the Saints closed the period with a 7-0 run to go into the locker room trailing only 30-25.

USF continued to give the Ramblers (10-2) fits in the early moments of the second half as the highly-favored hosts could not extend the lead beyond nine points until there was just 9:20 left in the game. Loyola finally got that double-digit lead on a free throw to make the score 46-36 and the Ramblers slowly increased the margin to as much as 20 points (63-43) before the game concluded.

Sophomore reserve guard Billy Hubly (Elk Grove H.S./Elk Grove, IL) led the Saints with a season-high 19 points. Hubly made all five of USF's successful 3-point shots. He was the lone Saint to score in double figures. Freshman center Dan Dispenza (Joliet Catholic Academy/Joliet, IL) made his first career start and pulled down a team-best 6 rebounds. Junior point guard Andrew Fair (Olive-Harvey College/Chicago, IL) topped the team with 5 assists.

The Saints return home to face Trinity Christian in a nonconference game at the Recreation Center on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.