The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team won an exciting Northeast Conference contest Saturday evening by defeating Central Connecticut State, 48-46, at Stratis Arena in Hackensack. The Knights rallied from 12 down at halftime by scoring 34 second-half points. The Knights took the lead for good, 46-45, on senior Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin)'s (Prerov, Czech Republic) layup with 40 seconds to go. Senior Mike Scott (Philadelphia, PA/Texas Christian) (Philadelphia, PA) then knocked down a pair of free throws with 13 seconds remaining to put the Knights up, 48-45. CCSU was then fouled with 0:00.5 seconds to go. Ken Horton made the first and missed the second intentionally, and the tip-back off the miss fell just short allowing FDU to escape with a 48-46 victory. The Knights are now 2-0 in NEC play for the first time since the 2006-07 season and have won three-straight games for the first time since 2007-08. With the victory, the Knights improve to 3-3 (2-0 NEC) on the season, while the Blue Devils fall to 4-3 (1-1 NEC) overall.
Svrdlik scored 20 points for the second straight game as he scored a game-high 20 points. He picked up his third double-double of the season with a game-high 11 rebounds. He also swatted away a game-high two shots. Scott added 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and fell one steal short of a career high in steals as he registered six.
The Blue Devils opened the game with an early 6-2 lead before the Knights tied the game at six on senior Terence Grier (Cranford, NJ/St. Thomas More Prep)'s (Cranford, NJ) layup with 15:53 to go in the half.
After CCSU took its third four-point lead of the half, FDU cut the lead to 10-8. However, the Blue Devils then outscored the Knights, 16-6, over the final 12:57 of the half to go into halftime up, 26-14.
Svrdlik led the Knights with six points, while Scott and Grier each had four. Scott also had four steals and three assists to lead FDU.
The Knights only connected on 5-of-20 field goals (25.0 percent) over the first 20 minutes, while the Blue Devils shot 38.5 percent (10-for-26). CCSU also out-rebounded FDU, 21-12. The Knights forced nine turnovers and turned the ball over eight times.
Coming out of the break, Svrdlik scored 10 of the first 12 points for the Knights as they cut the lead to 34-30 with 10:36 to go in the game.
After the Blue Devils went back up five, Scott stole the ball and went coast-to-coast to score a tough layup, and sophomore DeShawn Dockery (Chicago, IL/Worcester Academy) (Chicago, IL) followed by scoring a layup with the shot clock winding down to cut the lead to 37-36 with 8:34 remaining.
Dockery cut the lead to one once again with another layup after the Blue Devils had gone up three. With CCSU up 39-38, a technical foul was called on the Blue Devils. Scott went to the line and calmly sank both free throws to give the Knights their first lead of the game, 40-39, with 6:23 to go in the game.
The Blue Devils were able to stretch their lead back to three before Scott hit a layup and Svrdlik following with his game-winning layup, putting the Knights up, 46-45, with 40 seconds to go.
The Knights finished the game shooting 44.2 percent (19-for-43) from the floor thanks to a hot second half that saw them shoot 60.9 percent (14-for-23). The Blue Devils finished the game shooting 36.0 percent (18-for-50).
CCSU edged FDU on the boards, 31-29, while each team committed 13 turnovers. The Knights scored 36 points in the paint compared to 26 by the Blue Devils.
Markeys Deans led the Blue Devils with 11 points. Horton and Robby Ptacek each added 10.
"This is the best effort I have seen us play since I have been at FDU," said Head Coach Greg Vetrone. "During the second half we came together as a team. The execution of the play with Kamil scoring at the end was phenomenal."
"Dockery, (Tyler) Reynolds, and (John) Galvin gave us some tough minutes and did things on the floor you cannot ask for from a coach. With Terence (Grier) going down, those three stepped up and played excellent and were ready to play in a Northeast Conference game after not playing many minutes this season."
The Knights will now hit the road for four-straight non-conference contests. First up is Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8, in Storrs, CT. The game will be televised on SNY.
