In a thrilling 91-88 victory, the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team defeated Sacred Heart at the William H. Pitt Center in Fairfield, CT on Tuesday evening. The Knights improve to 10-10 overall, with a 5-4 record in conference play, while the Pioneers fall to 10-10 overall, including 6-3 in league action.
The Knights jumped out to a 10-5 lead to start the game, with the first eight points coming from Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold). Cameron Tyler (Jamaica, NY/Notre Dame Prep) found Andre Harris (Detroit, MI/Robichaud) under the basket to give FDU a 12-8 lead five minutes into the game.
Tyler's floating jumper from the paint gave the Knights a 17-12 advantage, but the Pioneers staged a 7-2 run to tie up the game at 19 with just under 12 minutes remaining.
Sacred Heart took the lead when Drew Shubik connected on a three and Brice Brooks had a put-back, 24-21. SHU out-scored the Knights 8-2 to take a 32-26 lead but Eric Hazard's trey brought the Knights within three, 32-29.
Fairleigh Dickinson reclaimed the lead, 36-32, when Ubilla connected on one his five first-half three's and Harris followed it up with a lay-in with two minutes left in the first half. Hazard connected on another one from long-range and with time winding down, Ubilla hit a three at the buzzer to give the Knights a 43-40 lead entering the break.
Ubilla's five three-pointers in the first half were a season team-high. The last time a Knight recorded five or more from behind the arc came when Bernell Murray went 7-of-9 from three-point range against Monmouth on Feb. 20, 2006.
The Knights started the second half strong, storming out to an eight-point lead, 63-55 with 13:15 on the clock. The run included a pair of three's from Michael Peeples (Detroit, MI/Benedictine), and was capped by a lay-up from Tyler.
Sacred Heart responded with an 11-2 run to get back in the game, making it a one-point contest, 63-62, with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.
Tavio Hobson connected on a trey from the corner to give Sacred Heart its first lead of the second half, 72-70, but a three-point play from Peeples returned the lead to Fairleigh Dickinson.
The two teams traded buckets until the score was knotted up for the fourth time in the first 15 minutes, 77-77.
Peeples' reverse lay-up with 47 seconds left gave the Knights a one-point edge, 87-86. Harris grabbed a key steal on the other end and sent it over to Tyler, who took it all the way in for an 89-86 advantage. As the Pioneers tried to tie up the game, Peeples tipped the ball out of bounds, running down the shot clock for Sacred Heart.
Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen), who made his first start in the second half, calmly sank two from the line for the 91-88 win. The Pioneers had a chance with 17.3 seconds left, but were unable to convert as Tyler got the final board underneath the basket.
Five Knights scored in double-digits to lead FDU to the victory. The last time five or more Knights notched double-digit point totals was in the 96-95 overtime win vs. Wagner on Jan. 6.
Peeples scored all 16 of his points in the second half and Harris finished with 16 points, scoring 12 in the second frame. Ubilla led the Knights, scoring 21 points, all coming in the first 20 minutes. Tyler finished with a double-double, recording 19 points, going 9-of-13 from the floor, and dishing out a career-high 10 assists. The last Knight to dish out 10 assists was Tamien Trent, who did it twice in 2004-05 (2/21/05 at St. Francis NY and 1/31/05 at Long Island). Hazard, who went 4-of-7 from beyond the arc, broke his previous career-high by two points, pouring in 14. Harris led the Knights on the boards with seven rebounds.
Chauncy Hardy came off the bench to give the Pioneers a team-high 21 points in 24 minutes. Joey Henley added 16, Luke Granato scored 11 and Shubik gave Sacred Heart 10 points and 10 assists.
"It was a great effort," said Head Coach Tom Green. "We knew it was going to be a shootout coming in to this game. They were 11-for-19 from behind the three-point line and we were 12-of-21. I was concerned coming in- I didn't think that we could match them from a shooting standpoint, but I was wrong. I think that this is a great win for us to have. This was really big for our program and our team."
Prior to this evening's game, the Pioneers had been able to hold their opponents to an average of 77.7 points per game and a .476 field goal percentage.
The Knights shot 57 percent from the floor, 57 percent from behind the arc and 88 percent from the line.
The Knights are back in action on Thursday, Feb. 1 when they play at Robert Morris in Moon Township, PA.
