Box Score

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team rallied Thursday night for an 85-79 victory over Mount St. Mary's in the Northeast Conference opener for both sides at Stratis Arena. With the victory, the Knights improve to 5-10 (1-0 NEC) on the season, while the Mount falls to 4-10 (0-1 NEC) overall.

For the second-straight contest, senior Sidney Sanders Jr. (Charleston, S.C./Burke) established a new career high in scoring after dropping 32 points on 12-of-21 (3-of-3 from behind-the-arc) shooting from the floor while tallying a team-high four assists. Freshman Matt MacDonald (Buffalo, N.Y./Canisius) added a career-best 21 points (12-of-14 free throws), while senior Mathias Seilund (Dragoer, Denmark/Falkonergaardens Gymnasium) chipped in 16 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds to tie a career high.

"Sid Sanders literally put the entire team on his back, and our freshman phenom Matt MacDonald (Buffalo, N.Y./Canisius) was tremendous," Head Coach Greg Herenda said.  

The Mount led by as many as eight on two separate occasions in the first half, with the last time coming at 20-12 with 14:04 remaining before halftime. But a layup from Seilund triggered seven unanswered points for FDU, which allowed the home team to cut the deficit to 20-19 at the 11:33 mark.

The Knights would take their first lead of the game at 26-24 after a three-pointer from Sanders Jr. However, the Mount would regain the advantage two possessions later before extending their lead back out to six at 42-36 with 2:49 to go in the opening half.

Over the final 2:26, FDU outscored the visitors by four to go into the locker room trailing 43-41.

Both sides shot an identical 43.3 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes, but the Mount nailed 7-of-13 from three-point range, as they outscored the Knights by 15 from distance. Sanders Jr. scored 18 first-half points, while MacDonald added nine.

FDU started the second half outscoring the Mount by six, and sophomore Xavier Harris (Philadelphia, Pa./Constitution)'s layup allowed the Knights to take a 49-45 lead nearly three minutes in.

The Mount came back with four in a row to knot the game at 49-49 for the first of five ties over the final 20 minutes.
With the score deadlocked at 55-55, MacDonald drained a free throw, and Seilund knocked down a trey ball and second-chance layup to give the Knights a 61-56 lead at the 10:10 mark.

But the visitors fought back using a 7-2 spurt, as Gregory Graves' tip-in tied the game at 63 all.

The Mount would then take their final lead of the game on Byron Ashe's three-pointer, which gave the visitors a 67-65 lead. But on the next FDU possession, Sanders Jr. calmly knocked down a three from the right wing to give the Knights the lead for good at 68-67 with 4:47 remaining.

The biggest sequence of the contest came after the final media time out with just under four minutes left. MacDonald made both of his free throws to extend the lead to three, and junior Mustafaa Jones (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann-Goretti) followed with one of his game-high four steals. MacDonald then drilled a huge three-pointer to give FDU a 73-67 lead with 3:47 left in the game.

The Mount cut the Knights' advantage to 75-72 at the 2:29 mark but it was the closest they would come. FDU made its final eight free throw attempts, and a capitalization drunk from Sanders Jr. off his steal put the Knights up at 81-73 with 22 ticks left, as they held on for the victory.

The biggest difference in the game came on points off turnovers, with FDU holding a 17-5 advantage. The Knights turned the ball over a season-low six times while forcing the Mount into 13 miscues.

Both sides finished the game at 43 percent shooting, but FDU drained 29-of-36 free throws (80.6 percent), which helped countered the Mount's 11 made three-pointers (on 25 attempts). The Knights were also edged on the glass, 36-35.

"We beat a very, very good team, and we were extremely fortunate," Herenda said. "They played in the conference championship game last year, but we just need to get better defensively, and we will be fine."

Julian Norfleet, who came into the contest as the Choice Hotels/NEC Co-Player of the Week with Sanders Jr., led the Mount with 24 points and a game-high nine assists. Rashad Whack and Sam Prescott added 23 and 10 points, respectively, while Graves pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

FDU will have a quick turnaround when it travels to Fairfield, Conn. to face Sacred Heart in an NEC contest scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11.