In the first game of the Garden State Rival Series, the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team came back to defeat host Monmouth, 70-66, at Boylan Gymnasium in West Long Branch, NJ. The Knights improve to 6-11 overall with a 2-5 record in Northeast Conference play, while the Hawks fall to 5-15 overall, including a 2-6 mark in league action.
Sophomore guard Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) led the Knights, registering a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds and senior guard Manny Ubilla (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) added 20. Senior guard Bernell Murray (Stillwater, OK/Stillwater) finished with 13 points and freshman forward DeJuan Pursley (Leonia, NJ/Leonia) netted a season-high 10 points.
The Knights took an early 8-7 lead on a jumper by Baptiste, but the Hawks put in seven unanswered points for a 14-8 Monmouth lead.
Back-to-back baskets from Murray and Purlsey cut the Hawks' lead to three, 17-14, with 11:30 remaining in the half.
Monmouth grabbed a 21-14 advantage on a dunk from R.J. Rutledge, but after Ubilla nailed a three-pointer from the corner, Baptiste took a steal down the court and laid it in to make it a two-point game, 21-19, with just over eight minutes remaining in the half.
Senoir forward Eric Hazard (Long Branch, NJ/St. Benedict's) swished a three to knot the score at 25 with six minutes left in the first frame.
Murray sank a trey to make it a 30-28, but the Hawks out-scored FDU 11-3 to take their only double-digit lead of the half, 41-31, with under two minutes to play. Ubilla scored the final five points of the half to make it a five-point gap heading into the locker room, 41-36.
Entering the half, Ubilla led the Knights with 11 and Whitney Coleman led all scorers with 16.
Coming out of the break, Baptiste netted a jumper and Murray connected on a three to tie up the game, 41-41.
Monmouth regained the lead with an 8-0 run, but a three-pointer from Ubilla cut the score to 49-46, with just over 14 minutes left in the game.
MU pushed it up to a seven-point advantage, 60-53, on a pair from the line by Rutledge and jumped out to a nine-point lead, threatening to run away with the game with seven minutes remaining. But the Knights forged ahead, scoring six-straight to make it 62-59 on a tip-in from Pursley.
The rivalry game lived up to the hype as Baptiste stole the ball and put down an emphatic dunk to bring the Knights within one, 64-63, with under two minutes to play. Ubilla then sank a three-pointer from the top of the arc to give the Knights a 66-64 advantage with 1:28 on the clock.
The Knights forced a turnover on the other end, but were unable to convert offensively. But FDU's defense again forced a turnover and Ubilla sank one from the line to give the Knights a 67-64 edge with 29 seconds left to play. Baptiste connected on 3-of-4 from the charity stripe in the next 20 seconds for FDU's 70-66 lead.
Monmouth had a chance to put two more on the board with two seconds on the clock, but Baptiste grabbed the defensive rebound off the missed shot to end the game. FDU finished the game with only nine turnovers, while forcing Monmouth to cough up the ball 21 times.
“It was a crazy game,” said Head Coach Tom Green. “In the last two minutes, with our free throw shooting, my heart started to race a little too much. I'm proud of our guys and the way that we hung in there.”
Fairleigh Dickinson was out-rebounded, 37-31, and Monmouth held a higher shooting percentage (48 percent ? 39 percent). Coleman led the Hawks with 21 points. The Knights were able to convert 22 points off of turnovers, while allowing MU only eight.
The Knights will host Wagner College on Sunday, Jan. 27 at 7:00 p.m.
