Junior guard Mike Scott (Philadelphia, PA/Texas Christian) (Philadelphia, PA) led three Knights (1-12) in double-digits, scoring 15 points. Junior guard Terence Grier (Cranford, NJ/St. Thomas More Prep) (Cranford, NJ) added 13 points and junior forward Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin) (Prerov, Czech Republic) was just shy of a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds. Redshirt-sophomore DeJuan Pursley (Leonia, NJ/Leonia) (Leonia, NJ) also had eight rebounds.

Iona (8-4) took an 8-2 lead to start the game, but the Knights tied up the game 10-10 on a fast break lay-up from Grier four minutes into the half.

FDU cut Iona's lead to six, 19-13, on a tip-in from Svrdlik, but the Gaels were able to string together 10 unanswered points to take a double-digit lead. Scott fed senior guard Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) (North Brunswick, NJ), who finished the game with eight points, for his second trey of the game to make it 34-23 with five minutes remaining in the first half.

Junior forward John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) (Weston, CT) sank two from the charity stripe to cut Iona's lead to 37-25 with just under four minutes left to play in the period, but Iona went on a 7-2 run over the next three minutes. Galvin sank two more free throws with three seconds on the clock to send the teams into the half with the Knights down by 15, 44-29.

Scott and Galvin led the Knights in the first half, each with seven points, while Scott Machado led the Gaels with 12 points. Iona's bench out-scored FDU's, 23-7 and the two teams were tied on the boards (19-19). Iona scored 17 points off turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

FDU out-scored the Gaels over the first four minutes of the second half, 10-5, to cut the deficit to 10 (49-39). But Iona staged a 12-2 run, capped with a three-pointer from Jermel Jenkins to take a dominating 61-41 lead with 9:41 left to play.

Grier's lay-up with nine minutes remaining cut into Iona's advantage (61-43), but the Gaels were able to take their largest lead of the game, 76-52, with 4:22 on the clock. In the second half, FDU out-scored Iona in the paint (14-12), in points off turnovers (10-4) and in fast break points (10-3). The Gaels out-rebounded the Knights, 39-36, and connected on 12 three-pointers, to FDU's six.

The Gaels finished the game shooting 49 percent, led by 15 points from Milan Prodanovic.

"Iona is an athletic team and they caused poroblems with the match-ups" said Head Coach Greg Vetrone. "When we hit a wall, we have to learn how to fight through it. We are getting to the right places, we just need to execute once we get there."

The Knights are back in action on Jan. 2 when they return to Northeast Conference play, hosting Sacred Heart at 7:00 p.m.