The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team fell to visiting Robert Morris, 74-40, on Saturday night at Stratis Arena. The Knights fall to 4-15 on the season, with a 4-5 mark in Northeast Conference play, while the Colonials improve to 13-7 overall, with an 8-1 record in league action.
Cameron Tyler (Jamaica, NY/Notre Dame Prep (MA)) (Jamaica, NY) led the Knights with 14 points, shooting 4-for-6, while Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) (North Brunswick, NJ) added eight points. John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) (Weston, CT) led FDU on the boards with eight rebounds.
The Colonials opened the game with an 8-2 offensive spurt over the first three and a half minutes, but Eric Moore (Dover, NJ/St. Benedict's) (Dover, NJ) found Tyler behind the arc and a dunk from Alvin Mofunanya (Englewood, NJ/Dwight Morrow) (Englewood, NJ) made it a 9-7 game.
Back-to-back baskets from Baptiste tied up the contest, 12-12, eight minutes into the first frame.
Moore sank a three to again tie up the game at 17-17 with 10:34 on the clock, but the Colonials scored nine unanswered points over the next two minutes to grab the advantage.
Moore sank a long two-pointer and then grabbed a steal, but a basket from Jeremy Chappell made it 28-19. The teams remained locked for three minutes at that score until a dunk from Rob Robinson sparked the Colonials out-scoring the Knights 8-2 to give RMU the 36-21 lead with a minute remaining in the half.
Tyler found Galvin under the basket with 33 seconds remaining, but Gary Wallace hit a jumper with three seconds on the clock to send Robert Morris into the locker room with a 38-23 lead. RMU out-scored the Knights in points the paint (24-8), points off of turnovers (21-8) and fast break points (10-0).
The Colonials held a 12-9 edge on the boards. FDU took only 16 shots in the first half, making nine, while Robert Morris was 17-for-28. RMU shot 61 percent from the floor and the Knights shot 56 percent. Robinson led all scorers with 18 points, while Chappell also went into the break in double-digits with 10 points. Tyler and Baptiste each had six points in the first half.
Tyler connected on a three-pointer to make it 42-28 two minutes into the second half and a steal from Baptiste led to a fast break lay-up for Tyler to make it 49-30 with 15 minutes remaining.
A dunk from Ifeanyi Ehirim capped an 18-7 run over the first seven minutes of the second half for the Colonials.
FDU was able to rattle off five-straight points to make it 56-35, as Moore connected a jumper, Tyler sank a free throw and Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin) (Prerov, Czech Republic) put one in from the paint. But Robert Morris responded with a 13-3 run, taking a 69-38 edge with four minutes left in regulation.
Robert Morris' bench was able to out-score FDU's, 23-5. Robinson finished the game with 20 points, while Chappell added 12.
“I thought that we could have played a lot better,” said Head Coach Tom Green. “They play the best man-to-man defense in our league. In the first half our percentage was good, but we only took 16 shots. We had too many turnovers [14] and they shot over 60 percent.”
“I told the guys that one win won't make us or destroy us, but we are at the half point of the season and we are 4-5 in conference play. We need to play a lot better in the second half.”
The Knights will play at Long Island on January 29 at 7:00 p.m.
