Sophomore guard Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) (Metuchen, NJ) recorded a career-high 23 points to lead the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team (2-5) past visiting Norfolk State (2-5), 80-64, on Monday evening in its home opener at the Stratis Arena.
Senior guard Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) (Freehold, NJ) added 19 points and six assists and freshman forward John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) (Weston, CT) pulled down a team season-high 14 rebounds. Baptiste went 6-for-12 from the floor, while Ubilla was 4-for-4 in the first half from three-point range.
The Knights didn't waste any time, jumping out to a 23-4 lead. Ubilla connected on his fourth three-pointer in four attempts to give FDU a 27-6 lead and freshman guard Jordan Stasyszyn (Carlisle, PA/Carlisle) (Carlisle, PA) netted his own trey to put the Knights ahead by 27 (35-8).
Stasyszyn connected on another trey with six seconds left in the first half, giving FDU its largest lead of the game going into the break, 43-12.
Fairleigh Dickinson shot 52 percent in the first half, while holding the Spartans to 24 percent. The Knights also forced eight turnovers, while only giving the ball up three times.
The Knights put in 12 points off of turnovers while the Spartans received only two. FDU was also 7-0 in fast break points.
Norfolk State out-scored the Knights 26-10 over the first ten minutes of the second period. Larry Vickers hit a jumper to make it 53-38 with nine and a half minutes remaining in the game. The Spartans were able to cut the lead to 13 with seven minutes left as Tony Murphy connected on one from behind the arc to cut Fairleigh Dickinson's lead to 59-46.
Sophomore forward Brian Lytle (Union, NJ/St. Marks) (Union, NJ) put his offensive rebound back into the net to push the Knights' lead back up, 63-46, with six minutes on the clock. But the Spartans staged another run, using a 13-7 stretch to get within 11 points, 70-59, with three minutes remaining. That was as close as they would get, unable to cut it to a single-digit lead at any point after the 13:40 mark in the first half.
Murphy led the Spartans with 26 points, while Michael DeLoach added 12 and Larry Vickers chipped in 10.
“We've been trying to emphasize defense for the last two weeks and I'm very pleased with our defense tonight, especially in the first half,” said Head Coach Tom Green, who is now just six wins shy of 400.
“We kept Norfolk State shooting under 50 percent. At the 32-minute mark, you could see the fatigue setting in but the team hung in there. I saw some improvement in this game. In the first half, our offense was clicking, we were executing and we had quality shot selection.”
The Knights will host Stony Brook on Saturday, Dec. 15 at 7:00 p.m.
