Box Score

EMMITSBURG, Md. -- The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team allowed a late second-half lead to slip away before falling in overtime to Mount St. Mary's, 87-82, in Northeast Conference action on Thursday night at Knott Arena. With the victory, the Mount improves to 8-12 (4-3 NEC) on the season, while the Knights fall to 8-13 (4-3 NEC) overall.

Senior Sidney Sanders Jr. (Charleston, S.C./Burke) gave FDU a 69-66 lead on a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left. But the Mount's Sam Prescott drilled a three-pointer from the right wing to tie the game at 69-69 with less than six ticks remaining.

After a Mount St. Mary's time out, Sanders Jr. took the inbound pass and went coast-to-coast into lane traffic, but his layup rolled off the front of the rim, sending the game to overtime.

Prescott started extra time with a three-point play, and the Mount never looked back, ultimately extending their lead to 12 before claiming the victory, 87-82.

"We just could not put them away tonight – they showed why they made the (NEC) championship game last year," Head Coach Greg Herenda said. "We had a number of chances to finish the game, and we simply did not. We needed one person other than Sid (Sanders Jr.) to nail it down, and that just never happened tonight."

The biggest difference in the contest was turnovers, with the Knights giving up the basketball a season-high 22 times leading to 25 points for the Mount, who committed 14 miscues. FDU won the rebounding battle, 45-41, but were outworked on the offensive glass by one, which allowed the home team to score five more second-chance points.

In the first half the Knights broke away from an early 8-8 tie with six unanswered points to take a 14-8 lead at the 13:42 mark of the first half.
But the Mount responded with a 12-2 spurt to go ahead 20-16 with 10:39 remaining before halftime.

With nearly 10 minutes to go before the break, freshman Matt MacDonald (Buffalo, N.Y./Canisius) drilled a three-pointer, which triggered a 20-6 run, as sophomore Xavier Harris (Philadelphia, Pa./Constitution)' free throw gave FDU its largest lead of the game at 36-26 with 1:05 to go before halftime, where the Knights led 38-30.

Harris scored a season-high 11 points in the first half to lead FDU, who shot 50 percent from the field and knocked down 13-of-15 free throws. The Knights also held the Mount to only 32.1 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes, but the home team outscored FDU by nine from behind the arc.

The Mount started the second half on a 10-2 run to knot the game at 40-40, before MacDonald gave the Knights the lead back with another three-pointer.

But the Mount scored the next nine points to cap their 23-7 run going back to the end of the first half on Rashad Whack's layup, which put the home team up six at 49-43 with exactly 13:00 remaining in regulation.

The Knights absorbed the Mount's blow and netted the next six to deadlock the contest at 49-49 with 11:18 to go in the second half.

The Mount would regain the advantage and break away from another tie at 53-53 to lead 58-55. But with 7:57 left in regulation, junior Mustafaa Jones (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann-Goretti) tied it with a trey ball and then gave the Knights a 61-58 lead a minute later with another three ball. Sanders Jr. followed with the next six points and capped the 12-0 run with a deep three-pointer from the top of the key, which gave FDU a 67-58 advantage at the 3:46 mark.

However, the Knights could only muster two more points the rest of regulation, as the Mount fought back with six unanswered to cut the deficit to one, before Sanders Jr.'s two free throws set up FDU with a three-point lead before the end of the second half.

Sanders Jr. scored 17 of his team-high 21 points after halftime, including 16 in the second half, while dishing out a team-best five assists. MacDonald joined Harris by scoring 11 points to go along with five rebounds, and Jones tacked on 10 points. Graduate student Scooter Gillette (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann-Goretti) nearly collected a double-double with nine points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Whack did tally a double-double for the Mount with game highs of 23 points and 10 rebounds. Julian Norfleet also had a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 11 assists, while Gregory Graves came off the bench to add 15 points and eight rebounds.

The Knights will have quick turnaround when they travel to Loretto, Pa. to match up with Saint Francis University in conference action on Saturday, Feb. 1. Tipoff at DeGol Arena is slated for 2 p.m.