Feb. 22, 2006

Box Score

HACKENSACK, NJ - The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team (17-10, 13-4 NEC) fell to visiting Wagner College (12-13, 5-11 NEC), 72-66, on Wednesday evening at the Rothman Center.

Four Knights scored in double-digits, with senior Gordon Klaiber (Greenbelt, MD/National Christian Academy)'s (Greenbelt, MD) 18 points and nine rebounds leading the way. Junior Andrea Crosariol (Abano T., Italy) notched 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting and senior Chad Timberlake (Brooklyn, NY) chipped in 13 points and five assists. Junior Michael Peeples (Detroit, MI) added 13 points.

Fairleigh Dickinson started off the night reeling off the first eight points of the game. The Knights took a nine-point lead, 14-5, five minutes into the game after Klaiber converted an old fashioned three-point play.

The Seahawks stormed back into the game with a 17-2 run, capped by a trey from Matt Vitale, to take their first lead, 17-16. Four-straight points from Llewchean Radford gave Wagner a double-digit advantage, 28-18, with 6:32 remaining in the half.

The Knights were able to cut the Wagner edge to seven on a long three from Klaiber, but the Seahawks went into the half ahead, 36-27.

In the first 20 minutes, Wagner out-scored the Knights in the paint, 20-12, and was able to get 17 points from its bench.

The Knights staged a big run out of the break in the first two minutes of the second half, as they whittled Wagner's lead to three, 36-33. The Knights then showed flashes of the first-place team in the conference as they rattled off 10-straight, capped by a Peeples dunk from Timberlake, sophomore Bernell Murray (Stillwater, OK) finding Crosariol in the paint for a layup and Timberlake slamming in a dunk to tie the game at 43-43.

The two teams traded baskets over the next two minutes with three ties. Joey Mundweiler netted a jumper to give Wagner a four-point lead, 52-48, but Klaiber responded with a jumper of his own to bring it back down to two.

Timberlake found Harris at the top of the key for a jumper that brought the Knights within one, 55-54, with 7:32 remaining, but Durell Vinson managed to convert a three-point play with 1:56 on the clock to give Wagner a five-point lead.

A dunk by Peeples gave the Knights hope, down three with 39 seconds remaining in the game, but the Seahawks scored the final three points of the game for the 72-66 win.

Wagner out-rebounded FDU, 43-28, and held the Knights to a trio of three-pointers. The Knights' defense forced 21 turnovers, while only giving the ball up 11 times.

Fairleigh Dickinson converted 20 points off turnovers while only giving up four in the second half.

Vinson led the Seahawks with 19 points, shooting 9-of-20 from the field. Mark Porter had 17 points and Wagner got 12 points from Vitale.

"We've had four games in seven days, three on the road. This has been a crazy week for us, and we've hardly had any practice time."

"I'm not using fatigue as an excuse, though," said Green. "Wagner came in here and played hard, played smart and out-hustled us."

The Knights close out the regular season when they host Monmouth on Monday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m., with a win giving the Knights sole possession of first place.