The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team opened its 2009-10 season with an 84-61 loss in Philadelphia, PA against No. 5 Villanova on Friday evening at The Pavilion. With the Knights down by only one at the half, the Wildcats used a strong second period to win the game.
Terence Grier (Cranford, NJ/St. Thomas More Prep) led the Knights with 17 points, starting the season just four shy of his career-high. In his Knights debut, Philadelphia native Mike Scott (Philadelphia, PA/Texas Christian) scored 15 points. Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) added 11 points and Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin) brought down a team-high nine rebounds. Alvin Mofunanya (Englewood, NJ/Dwight Morrow) posted a game-high and career-high six blocks.
Grier's drive to the basket seven minutes into the game made it 15-13, but the Wildcats went on a 10-2 run to take the lead, capped by five-straight from Dominic Cheek.
Baptiste broke a three-minute Knights scoring draught with an uncontested three and Scott sank two free throws for a 25-20 score. Grier added two after dunking a breakaway steal.
FDU was able to hold Villanova scoreless for a stretch of six minutes, allowing only two free throws to go on the board (by Fisher). In that span, Mofunanya swatted four shots to give the Knights a defensive boost.
After Mofunanya found Svrdlik under the basket, Grier netted a tip-in to give FDU the lead. Mike Scott (Philadelphia, PA/Texas Christian) sank a long two-pointer for the 30-27 advantage.
Grier connected on both ends of a one-and-one to knot the game at 32-32 with 1:32 on the clock and after Cheek put in a three-pointer, John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) brought the Knights within one, 35-34, to enter the break.
Grier led the Knights with 12 points in the first 20 minutes and FDU was a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. Fairleigh Dickinson shot 48 percent from the floor, holding Villanova to 32 percent. The Knights also held a slight edge in rebounding, 19-18.
Scott's three-pointer at the 15:53 mark in the second half cut the Wildcats' lead to three, 46-43. But the Wildcats pulled ahead, using a 12-3 run over four minutes to take a double-digit lead, 63-48, with just over 10 and a half minutes to play.
The Knights reeled off five unanswered points to cut the Wildcats' lead, but a 15-4 run by Villanova put the game out of reach.
Villanova out-scored the Knights in the paint, 22-10, and on second-chance points, 12-2. The Wildcats held a 46-35 edge on the boards and shot 49 percent from the floor in the second half.
Corey Stokes led Villanova with 20 points, while Corey Fisher added 13. Antonio Pena grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Knights will open competition at the O'Reilly's AutoParts CBE Classic on Sunday, Nov. 15 at 3:00 p.m. (CT) at Wichita State. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
