Army had three players score in double-digits to guide the Black Knights past the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team, 74-52, on Saturday evening at Christl Arena in West Point, NY. The Knights fall to 1-7 on the season, while Army improves to 3-7 overall.
Junior guard Eric Moore (Dover, NJ/St. Benedict's) led the Knights with 10 points, while junior guard Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen), sophomore forward Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin) and junior guard Cameron Tyler (Jamaica, NY/Notre Dame Prep (MA)) each added nine points. Baptiste led FDU on the boards with five rebounds. Sophomore forward John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) added three locks and Baptiste grabbed four steals.
Army used the first four minutes of the game to take an 8-1 lead over FDU. Moore sank one from behind the arc to make it 8-4, but the Black Knights pushed their lead to 14-7, until Svrdlik made it a five-point game with a tip-in.
An old-fashioned three-point play from Tyler at the 12 minute mark cut the Army lead to four (16-12), but the Black Knights widened the gap with an 8-2 run over the next four minutes .
Twelve of the Black Knights' first 30 points came from the free throw line. Army took 30-16 advantage with 5:12 remaining in the half on two free throws by Cleveland Richard.
But FDU responded on the other side of the court with a three from Moore as the shot clock wound down. Army took its largest lead of the half, 36-20, on a Doug Williams layup with just over a minute left in the half but Moore connected on one from the line with 37 seconds on the clock for a 15-point gap heading into the break.
Moore led the Knights in the first 20 minutes with 10 points, while Josh Miller led Army with eight points. The Black Knights were a perfect 14-14 from the line in an aggressive first frame that saw 25 fouls, and out-scored the Knights in the paint, 14-6. Army shot 52.4 percent from the floor, while FDU shot 23.8 percent.
Army started the half with a 9-2 run, out-scoring Fairleigh Dickinson 18-8 over the first eight minutes of the second period to take a 54-29 lead. The Knights staged an 8-3 run, capped by a layup from Svrdlik to cut Army's lead down to 61-42. But the Black Knights responded with seven-straight over the next minute.
A jumper from Tyler made it 71-52 with 1:23 left to play, but a bucket from Jeremy Hence with four seconds on the clock made the final 74-52.
FDU matched its season-high of 22 turnovers, but forced 27 turnovers by Army. The Knights were out-rebounded, 32-19, but held a 9-7 edge in steals.
Fairleigh Dickinson shot 32.6 percent from the floor for the game and 68.8 percent from the line, matching its' season-high of 22 made free throws. Army shot 56.1 percent from the field and 90.3 percent from the charity stripe. FDU didn't allow any three pointers from the Black Knights.
“We knew coming in that Army was going to play hard, set a lot of screens and play quality defense,” said Head Coach Tom Green. “They executed very well tonight.”
“We played good defense for the first 25-28 seconds of the shot clock, but in the last 10 seconds we ended up fouling or leaving someone open for a quality shot. They had 27 turnovers and we didn't do a very good job of taking advantage of that at all. We had too many breakdowns on the offensive end. We just need to play better to get a win.”
Williams led Army with 16 points, while Miller had 14 and Richard added 13. Kenny Brewer led the Black Knights on the boards with six rebounds.
The Knights return to action when they play at St. Peter's on Dec. 23 at 7:00 p.m.
