The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team fell to Stony Brook, 82-58, on Saturday afternoon at the Stony Brook University Sports Complex. The Knights fall to 5-4, while Stony Brook improves to 4-6.
Andre Harris (Detroit, MI/Robichaud) led the Knights with 20 points, going 2-for-3 from the perimeter and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. Jordan Ingram (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Carroll) led the Knights on the boards with nine rebounds and Michael Peeples (Detroit, MI/Benedictine) grabbed seven. Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) finished the game with nine points and Bernell Murray chipped in eight.
Stony Brook took off with a 7-0 lead to start the game, with the first five points coming from Mitchell Beauford. Once Stony Brook staked a 15-2 lead, the a three by Murray started an 8-3 run by the Knights to get back in the game.
The Knights were able to reel off five-straight points to cut the Seawolves' lead to five, 24-19, after Ubilla hit a shot from behind the arc and Harris connected on a pair from the line.
The Seawolves answered with a 6-0 run to take a double-digit lead, 30-19, but the Knights received five-straight from Harris and Ubilla again as Harris swished one from long range and Ubilla made two from the charity stripe to bring the deficit back down to six.
Stony Brook out-scored the Knights 14-4 over a three minute span to take a commanding 16-point lead and went into the half ahead, 48-31.
Fairleigh Dickinson came out of the break out-scoring the Seawolves, 7-3. The Knights' offense shifted momentum as they picked up the pace, and they were able to score five-straight, making the score 56-45, capped by a lay-in from Peeples.
A 9-2 run, which ended with a three-point play from Andrew Goba, put Stony Brook up, 67-47.
Stony Brook held its biggest lead, 82-53, with under a minute remaining on the clock. Harris drained a trey and Murray sank one as the clock ran down to make the final 82-58.
Mike Popoko led all scorers with 21 points and Ricky Lucas added 18. Each had seven rebounds. The Seawolves shot 52 percent from the floor and had a first-half three-point percentage of 57.
The Knights missed only three from the line, going 14-for-17.
“This is the first game all season where we didn't come to play,” said Head Coach Tom Green.
“Individual defense and team defense was as poor as its' been all year long. About the only bright spot for us was Andre Harris (Detroit, MI/Robichaud) from an offensive standpoint. It's my job to prepare the team for what they are going to see. We knew abut the 1-3-1 zone. We've been working on it for three days in practice and they looked good. Come game time, we didn't move the ball well at all.”
“Sometimes at the end of the season, you look back at all the games like this where you lost because you didn't play well at all. Hopefully this will be the only one that we have to look back on in that light.”
The Knights were out-rebounded, 45-37, and shot 29 percent from the floor. Stony Brook had 46 points in the paint, against FDU's 12, but Fairleigh Dickinson managed 17 second-chance points while allowing the Seawolves only nine.
Fairleigh Dickinson hosts Rider on Friday, December 22 at 2:00 p.m.
