St. Francis NY (9-16, 7-8 NEC) stifled a second-half comeback attempt by the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team (7-19, 6-9 NEC), defeating the Knights 82-72 in Brooklyn, NY on Saturday afternoon. The two teams were tied for seventh in the Northeast Conference standings entering into the contest.
Five Knights scored in double-digits, led by Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen)'s 22 points and Alvin Mofunanya (Englewood, NJ/Dwight Morrow)'s first double-double of the season as he scored 15 points and led the Knights on the boards with 12 rebounds. Terence Grier (Cranford, NJ/St. Thomas More Prep) had 12 points, Eric Moore (Dover, NJ/St. Benedict's) recorded 11 and Cameron Tyler (Jamaica, NY/Notre Dame Prep (MA)) added 10 points and eight assists.
St. Francis took the lead to open the game, 10-2, but the Knights were able to cut the lead in half, making it a 12-8 game on a lay-in from Grier six minutes into the game.
After a three-pointer from Ricky Cadell gave the Terriers a 17-10 advantage, Mofunanya's dunk was followed by a lay-up from Baptiste, who gave the Knights six of their first 14 points. Baptiste's basket made it a 17-14 game with 10:28 remaining in the half, but St. Francis pulled out to a 24-16 edge on Stefan Perunicic's trey.
St. Francis took its largest lead of the half, 27-18, on one from behind the arc by Rocco Rubino, but the Knights pulled within three, 27-24, on back-to-back baskets from Grier with 4:41 left in the first half.
The two teams traded baskets until St. Francis again pulled ahead, using a 7-1 run, capped by Perunicic's fourth three-pointer of the half, to take a 37-28 edge.
The Terriers went into the break with a 39-30 lead. Baptiste and Mofunanya each had eight points to lead the team at the end of the first half, while Perunicic led all scorers with 14 points and Cadell had 12. The Terriers shot 58 percent from the floor, while holding the Knights to 46 percent. But FDU held the edge on the boards, 19-14, with seven rebounds coming from Mofunanya.
St. Francis came out of the break with back-to-back baskets, but the Knights went on a 9-0 run, finished off with a pair from the line by Moore, to get back in the game. Moore's third trey of the game put the Knights behind just one point, 46-45, with 14:38 remaining in the game.
FDU took its first lead of the game when Mofunanya sank two from the line, 47-46, at the 14 minute mark. Moore grabbed a defensive rebound and dished it Mofunanya to make it a three-point Knights' lead.
After trading baskets for six minutes, St. Francis pulled out to a 63-58 lead, but Tyler connected on two from the charity stripe before Baptiste sank a three from the corner for the game's sixth tie.
The Terriers scored the next seven points of the game, three from the free throw line, to take a 70-63 advantage, but a shot from behind the arc by Baptiste with 2:37 remaining cut St. Francis' lead back down to four. St. Francis made 10 free throws in the final 64 seconds to seal the 82-72 win.
Fairleigh Dickinson held a 36-31 edge on the boards and matched its season-low of nine turnovers, while forcing 13 SFC turnovers. The Terriers out-shot FDU, 52 percent-45 percent. The Knights shot 32 percent from three-point range and 58 percent from the free throw line, while St. Francis shot 41 percent from behind the arc and connected on 76 percent from the stripe.
This game marks the ninth time this season that Baptiste has registered 20 points or more.
“I thought that our perimeter defense was awful,” said Head Coach Tom Green. “In the first half we played Cadell and Perunicic poorly, but were able to hold Womack. In the second half, we slowed down Perunicic, but Womack had all nine of his points and Cadell still got his shots. There were too many holes for us defensively for us. You just can't give a college team 80+ points and expect to win. I can promise that we are going to have a better defensive effort for the rest of the year.”
“I thought that Alvin had a really good game for us. We only got him five shots, but he made four of them. To their credit, they did a good job of shutting down the middle.”
The Knights will continue their four-game road stretch with a game at Quinnipiac on Feb. 19 at 7:00 p.m.
