Box Score

STONY BROOK, N.Y. -- The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team fell to Stony Brook, 77-62, Wednesday night at Pritchard Gymnasium. With the victory, the Seawolves improve to 6-3 on the season, while the Knights fall to 3-7 overall.

FDU, who trailed by 17 points with 15:31 left in the game, roared back to cut the Seawolves' lead to 62-59 at the 3:17 mark but could not get any closer, as Stony Brook closed out the contest on a 15-3 run.

Senior Sidney Sanders Jr. (Charleston, S.C./Burke) poured in a career-high 28 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field, grabbed a team-best eight rebounds and dished out a game-high six assists to pace the Knights, while freshman Matt MacDonald (Buffalo, N.Y./Canisius) added 11 points.

The difference in the contest came at the charity stripe, where the Seawolves held a commanding 28-5 advantage on the scoreboard. FDU only went to the line seven times compared to Stony Brook's 36 attempts. The Knights were also whistled for 10 more fouls (23-13).

The home team also won the battle on the glass, 38-26, including 15-7 on the offensive end, resulting in a 13-6 lead in second-chance points.

"Hats go off to Stony Brook – they are a very difficult team to beat in their own building," Head Coach Greg Herenda said. "They are experienced and physical – that being said, we were down three with three minutes to go, but they made all the big plays down the stretch."

Early on Stony Brook broke away from a 5-5 tie to score eight of the next 10 points to build a 13-7 lead, before the Knights fought back to cut the advantage to 13-11 on graduate student Scooter Gillette (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann-Goretti)'s basket off the glass in the lane with 13:09 remaining in the first half.

FDU eventually cut the deficit one at 18-17, but the Seawolves would then close the half out on a 19-7 run over the final 8:39 to go into the locker room leading 37-24.

Stony Brook took advantage of six Knights' turnovers, outscoring FDU 8-0 on points off turnovers, while outrebounding FDU, 21-14, including 10-2 on the offense glass for a 9-3 lead in second-chance points.

After the Seawolves extended their lead to 48-31, the Knights went to work. Sanders Jr. started a string of nine unanswered points for FDU with a tough layup in traffic, before a layup courtesy of senior Mathias Seilund (Dragoer, Denmark/Falkonergaardens Gymnasium) trimmed the deficit to 48-40 with 11:57 left, prompting Stony Brook to call its second 30-second time out during the run.

The Knights, who forced the Seawolves into eight second-half turnovers, kept their defensive pressure up and eventually got to within six at 52-46 on freshman Malachi Nix (Evanston, Ill./Niles North)'s three-pointer.

Still trailing by six at 54-48, MacDonald's three from the left corner went in and out, which would have cut Stony Brook's advantage to three with 7:24 to go.

Down seven, Nix knocked down a deep two-pointer from the right wing, and MacDonald followed with a trey ball from the left wing to cap a 22-7 FDU run, putting the Knights down four at 57-53 with just under six minutes left on the clock.

The Seawolves would extend their lead back out to six on two different occasions, before a bucket in the lane by Sanders Jr. made it a one-possession game at 62-59.

After Stony Brook's Dave Coley answered with a three-pointer at the 2:40 mark to increase the lead back to six at 65-59, both sides would come up empty on their next possessions.

FDU eventually had three opportunities to score after a Seawolves' turnover with under two minutes to go, but a blocked shot and two missed attempts from behind-the-arc, with the last coming at the 1:34 mark, doomed the Knights, as Stony Brook drained all 10 of its free throw attempts over the final 90 seconds to secure the 77-62 victory.

"Sid (Sanders) was awesome again, but we needed another guy or two to help him on the offensive end," Herenda said.

FDU knocked down 16-of-32 shots in the second half to finish the contest at 46.3 percent (25-of-54), including 7-of-22 from distance. The Knights' defense held the Seawolves to a 44 percent (22-of-50) clip and 5-of-12 from three.

"We had more field goals and more three's," Herenda said. "We need to play better defense without fouling.

Five players scored in double-figures for Stony Brook, with Carson Puriefoy leading the way with 15 points of the bench before fouling out. Ahman Walker added 14 points and seven rebounds, while Jameel Warney, Anthony Jackson and Coley each chipped in 13.

FDU will return to action Saturday, Dec. 7 when it travels to west-central New Jersey to face Princeton for a 7 p.m. contest. It will be the first meeting in the series between the two Garden State schools.