The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team lost a tough non-conference game to Garden State rival Rutgers Tuesday night, 79-65, at the RAC in Piscataway, NJ. Playing without two key contributors, the Knights were able to hang tough throughout the contest versus their Big East opponent. With the victory, the Scarlet Knights improve to 7-2 on the season, while the Knights fall to 3-6 overall. FDU has now lost three-straight games, all on the road.
Senior Mike Scott (Philadelphia, PA/Texas Christian) led all scorers by tying a career high with 23 points. He went a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line, with the 11 free throws also tying a career high. He also grabbed five rebounds and led the squad with four assists. Junior Briahn Smith (Detroit, MI/Madison) added 13 points and knocked down 3-of-7 from behind-the-arc. Senior John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) led the Knights on the glass with a game and season-high nine rebounds and rejected a game-high three shots.
After Rutgers scored the first bucket of the game, Scott knocked down a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Knights an early 3-2 lead.
The Scarlet Knights answered with a 12-0 run to go up, 14-3, with 14:03 remaining in the first half.
Freshman Tyler Reynolds (Eugene, OR/Sheldon) sparked a 9-0 for FDU by burying a trey from the right corner. Scott followed with back-to-back three's to cap the run and forcing a 30-second Rutgers' timeout.
The Scarlet Knights ended their scoring drought and went up, 17-12. Consecutive layups by senior Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin) and freshman Marco Porcher (Malaga, Spain/Oak Hill Academy (VA)) cut Rutgers' lead to 17-16 with 10:15 left in the half.
Rutgers then went on a 10-0 run before Scott knocked down a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to nine, 27-18.
Over the final 4:40 of the half, the Scarlet Knights outscored the Knights, 13-7, and went into halftime with their largest lead of the game at that point, 40-25.
The Knights knocked down 8-of-22 shots over the first 20 minutes, with six of them coming from behind-the-arc. Rutgers shot 53.3 percent (16-for-30) and out-rebounded the Knights by three, 17-14. The Scarlet Knights also forced FDU into 15 first-half turnovers, while turning the ball over seven times.
Scott led the Knights with 11 points and three assists. Svrdlik grabbed six rebounds to lead FDU.
To open the second half, Rutgers extended its lead to 47-27 by scoring seven of the first nine points.
FDU answered with seven-straight points as Scott's three from the top of the key cut the deficit to 47-34 with 16:15 remaining in the game.
Rutgers then outscored the Knights, 15-7, over the next six minutes to take its largest lead of the game, 62-41.
However, the Knights were not finished as they went on an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 64-52 with 6:29 to go and forced the Scarlet Knights into another 30-second timeout.
That was the closest the Knights would get to the Scarlet Knights as the home team outscored FDU by two the rest of the way and took the game, 79-65.
The Knights finished the game shooting only 32.6 percent (15-for-46) from the floor. However, they knocked down 26-of-29 at the free throw line, including 23-of-25 in the second half. They also out-rebounded Rutgers by one, 33-32.
"We competed tonight," said Head Coach Greg Vetrone. "That is the biggest thing we did tonight for a school our size going up against a Big East opponent."
Jonathan Mitchell led Rutgers with 22 points. Dane Miller added 13 points and nine rebounds, while Gilvydas Biruta chipped in 11.
The Knights conclude their four-game road swing by taking on another New Jersey opponent, Saint Peter's, in Jersey City on Saturday, Dec. 11. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
