JOLIET, Ill. - University of St. Francis played the tempo it wanted and held defending Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference champion Robert Morris to nearly 15 points below its scoring average but the Saints' upset bid fell short as the Eagles snapped USF's brief winning streak at two games with a 67-58 victory in the Recreation Center Wednesday night.

The Saints (6-17, 2-3) spread the floor offensively and forced the normally high-octane Robert Morris attack into a half court game for most of the evening. USF led 19-17 with 6:10 left in the first half and had the home crowd into the game.

The Eagles then unleashed one of only two significant offensive spurts in the game, going on an 8-0 run to regain the lead at 25-19 and then extending the lead by one more point to take a 32-25 edge into the locker room at halftime.

RMU's second run came at the start of the second half as the Eagles scored the first eight points of the second session and pushed their lead to its highest point of the game at 40-25. Combined, the run at the end of the first half and the one at the beginning of the second period was a 23-8 spurt for the Eagles.

USF, though, refused to fold to the heavily-favored Eagles (13-9, 4-1) and methodically cut into the visitors' lead. USF cut it to eight points at 44-36 with 12:57 left and then finally chopped the margin to just five at 52-47 with 3:57 remaining. But the Saints could get no closer than that five-point deficit. 

Robert Morris, which entered the game shooting just 58.7 percent from the free throw line as a team, sank 24-of-29 charity tosses on the night for a sparkling 82.8 percentage. 

The Saints outrebounded the taller Eagles by a 29-28 margin and held RMU to just a half-dozen offensive boards. USF had 13 offensive rebounds and finished with 14 second-chance points compared to just 12 for Robert Morris.

Junior point guard Andrew Fair (Olive-Harvey College/Chicago, IL) led St. Francis with 19 points and 4 assists. Reserve center Bruce Watson (Schoolcraft College/Detroit, MI) added 14 points and a game-high and career-best 14 rebounds to the USF cause. It was Watson's first double-double as a Saint.

Robert Morris was led in scoring by forward Robert Jones who pumped in a game-high 32 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

The Saints return to action on Saturday as they begin the second half of the CCAC schedule with a 3 p.m. game at Saint Xavier on Chicago's southwest side.