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HACKENSACK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team will travel to Burlington, Vt. to take on the University of Vermont on Saturday, Dec. 22. Tipoff at Patrick Gymnasium is slated for 2 p.m.
Saturday's matinee contest will be the Knights' last competition before the Christmas holiday.
The Knights halted the season for almost two weeks for final exams. Their last contest was a 69-59 loss to Hartford on Sunday, Dec. 9. Prior to the Hartford game, FDU had won four-of-five games, including a buzzer-beater tip-in win over Lafayette on Dec. 7.
Four Knights are currently averaging double-digit points. Seniors Kinu Rochford (Brooklyn, N.Y./James Madison), Melquan Bolding (Mt. Vernon, N.Y./Bishop Stepinac) and Lonnie Robinson (Deerfield Beach, Fla./Deerfield Beach) are putting up 14.0, 13.9 and 13.3 points per game, respectively. Freshman Sekou Harris (Plainfield, N.J./Plainfield High School) has added 10.8 points per contest, while dishing out 27 assists in five games from the point guard position.
Rochford leads FDU on the boards, averaging 9.4 per contest, and has recorded three double-doubles in five contests this season.
As a team, the Knights are averaging 66.9 points per game, while bringing down 28.2 rebounds per game. They have shot 44.3 percent from the field, including 42.2 percent from three-point range, the fifth best long-range percentage in the nation.
The Catamounts are 6-4 on the season under second-year head coach John Becker. In Becker's first season, Vermont went 24-12 and won the America East Championship.
This season, Vermont is predicted to finish atop the conference standings. Junior Luke Apfeld leads the team as the only double-digit scorer with 10.9 points per game. Classmate Brian Voelkel leads the team on the boards with 7.4 per contest.
The team is averaging 61.2 points and 34.0 rebounds per game and have shot 41.6 percent from the field, while holding opponents to a 39.7 percent clip through 10 games.
At Patrick Gymnasium, the Catamounts are 2-1 on the season with wins over Yale and Dartmouth and a loss to Towson. Vermont has faced just one Northeast Conference foe this season, earning a 53-46 win over Quinnipiac on Dec. 8.
The Knights and Catamounts have met just three times since 1981. FDU won the first contest before dropping the next two, including last year's 71-53 loss at Stratis Arena. Rochford led FDU iwith 13 points, while Bolding added 12.
Following the holiday break, the Knights will travel south for three consecutive road games. They will face Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday, Dec. 29 and Longwood on Monday, Dec. 31 before beginning Northeast Conference action at Mount St. Mary's on Thursday, Jan. 3.
