The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team (1-2) earned its first win of the season at Lafayette (1-2), 98-92, on Friday evening on with all five starters recording double-digits.
The Knights shot 54 percent, while holding the Leopards to 44 percent. Senior Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) scored a career-high 27 points, sophomore Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) poured in 21 points, freshman John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) gave the Knights 19, senior Bernell Murray (Stillwater, OK/Stillwater) chipped in 12 and senior Eric Hazard (Long Branch, NJ/St. Benedict's) added 10.
The game started with back-to-back three-pointers from Baptiste before Murray reeled off five-straight. Galvin put in a turnaround hook shot as the Knights took a 13-11 lead.
The Knights staged a 10-0 run to grab hold of a 23-14 lead. Ubilla fed the ball to Galvin and netted a trey at the top of the arc to cap the run.
Hazard drained a three and Murray converted an old-fashioned three-point play as Fairleigh Dickinson jumped out to a 36-25 advantage, its largest lead of the half.
Galvin netted a lay-in and on the ensuing possession, Murray's steal led to a lay-up from Ubilla to give FDU a 41-34 lead. The Leopards scored the final four points of the half.
The Knights shot 56 percent from the floor in the first half and Galvin and Murray both entered the half with 10 points as Fairleigh Dickinson took a 41-38 lead into the break.
The Knights came out of the locker room for the second half and reeled off nine straight points as Galvin connected on two free throws and Ubilla netted two baskets after a Lafayette technical foul. FDU jumped out to a 12-point lead, its biggest of the game, 50-38 with 17:30 left in the game.
The Leopards staged a 16-5 run over the five minutes to cut the Knights' lead to one, 55-54, with just under 13 minutes left to play. They took the lead on a lay-up by Deirunas Visockas, but Ubilla hit a three-pointer to regain the lead for the Knights.
Galvin, who connected on 11-of-12 from the charity stripe for the game, netted a pair of free throws to give the Knights a 62-57 advantage.
Jordan Stasyszyn (Carlisle, PA/Carlisle) drained a trey at the 8:48 mark as FDU grabbed a 68-59 lead. The Leopards' five unanswered points brought the gap down to only four with seven minutes remaining.
With three minutes left to play in regulation, Jared Mintz connected on a pair from the line to cut the Knights' advantage to four. But over the next two minutes, Fairleigh Dickinson out-scored Lafayette, 8-3, to regain a commanding lead.
Fairleigh Dickinson was able to return to the double-digit advantage when Ubilla netted two from the charity stripe with 30 seconds on the clock, 97-87. Ubilla finished the game 12-for-13 from the line.
The Knights held a 36-33 advantage on the boards; Lafayette received 43 points from the bench, while FDU had only nine.
Fairleigh Dickinson shot 56 percent from the perimeter and 78 percent from the line. Baptiste led the Knights on the boards for the second-straight game, pulling down eight rebounds.
"I'm very happy about the win," said Head Coach Tom Green. "Winning on the road is always especially good. The way the first half was going, I thought that it was going to be a shoot-out, but the second half turned into a free throw shooting contest. They were a good team."
"We switched Manny and Bernell, putting Manny at the point guard position and moving Bernell to the number two spot and that worked offensively. Overall, our starting five seemed to click more offensively tonight. Free throws were absolutely a factor in the gam tonight. We're still having problems on defense, we gave Lafayette way too many three-point looks."
The Knights are back in action against Rider on Monday, Nov. 19 at 7:00 p.m. in Lawrenceville, NJ.
