Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) poured in a career-high 33 points, but it wasn't enough as the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team fell to host Sacred Heart, 87-82, in Fairfield, CT on Thursday evening. The Knights drop to 5-10 overall, including a 1-4 mark in Northeast Conference play, while the Pioneers improve to 8-10, with a 5-2 record in league action.
Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) was another offensive bright spot for the Knights, draining 28 points, including six baskets from three-point range, dishing out a game-high nine assists and grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Baptiste shot 10-of-20 from the floor and was 12-of-14 from the line.
The Knights opened the game with a 6-2 lead, with four points coming from Brian Lytle (Union, NJ/St. Marks). The Pioneers took the lead, but Baptiste converted a steal into a dunk on the other end to tie the game, 10-10.
Ryon Howard scored Sacred Heart's next six points to give SHU a 14-13 lead. But Baptiste sank back-to-back buckets, followed by an Eric Hazard (Long Branch, NJ/St. Benedict's) three for a 20-14 FDU advantage. In the first nine minutes of the game, the game saw five ties and four lead changes.
Baptiste recorded double-digits early in the first half, reaching 10 points at the 9:31 mark, when he sank a lay-up. Sacred Heart staged a 15-2 run to grab a 29-22 lead, capped by a three form Ryan Litke. Ubilla converted a three-point play to make it a four-point game, 29-25, with 8:14 left to play in the first half.
The Pioneers out-scored the Knights, 8-2, over the next two minutes to jump out to a 37-28 advantage. The Knights quickly cut the lead to one, as Ubilla and Raynell Pascal (Brooklyn, NY/Carson Long Military Institute) sank back-to-back treys and DeJuan Pursley (Leonia, NJ/Leonia) followed it with a bucket to make it a 37-36 game.
Lytle hit two free throws to again bring the Knights within one, 39-38, with 3:19 left in the half, but the Pioneers closed out the first frame with an 8-1 run to enter the break ahead 47-39.
Baptiste entered the half with 12 points and Ubilla recorded 10 in the first 20 minutes.
Sacred Heart opened the first five minutes of the second half out-scoring the Knights 13-7 to grab hold of a 60-46 edge. John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) scored the first four points of the half for the Knights and Ubilla reeled off the next six with two treys.
The Knights' staged a quick run to make it 62-54, but Sacred Heart pushed the gap back up with a 10-1 offensive spurt to make it 72-55.
Ubilla drained one from beyond the arc and Baptiste netted a bucket to make it a 72-60 game.
The Knights' next 10 points came from Baptiste to cut the Pioneers' lead to 76-68 with under seven minutes remaining and Baptiste broke his previous career-high of 27 on a pair from the line, making it 80-70 with 4:34 remaining for 29 points.
Fairleigh Dickinson staged an 11-4 run, capped by a free throw from Baptiste followed by a lay-up from Ubilla to trim it down to only a five-point gap, 84-79. Drew Shubik connected on his second free throw and Howard slammed a dunk with 43 seconds for an eight-point lead.
With 12 seconds left, Ubilla sank a three-pointer, but that would be the last shot, making the final score 87-82.
After shooting 56 percent in the first half, the Knights made only 12-of-31 in the second frame (38.7 percent). FDU was out-rebounded, 36-28, and Sacred Heart held the edge in points off turnovers (25-9) and fast break points (14-5). The Pioneers also received 23 points from their bench, while Fairleigh Dickinson got only five.
“Last year we had 19 games decided by five points or less, and it seems we are following the same pattern this year,” said Head Coach Tom Green. “Sacred Heart is one of the better teams, if not the best, in the league and they have well-balanced scoring. We tried to contain their three-point shooters in the second half. We slowed them down from the perimeter, but they beat us inside.”
“We continue to get really good play from Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) and Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) and we learned more about our bench tonight, seeing time from Lawrence Brown (Portsmouth, England/Millersburg Military Inst.) and Raynell Pascal (Brooklyn, NY/Carson Long Military Institute).”
“I told the guys in the locker room that we inches away from being on the left side of the ledger as opposed to the right side,” said Green. “Hopefully we can turn it around soon.”
The Knights are back in action at Central Connecticut on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 2:00 p.m. in New Britain, CT.
