Box Score

EASTON, Pa. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team earned a 91-89 overtime victory at Lafayette on Wednesday night.   Redshirt junior Tyrone O'Garro (Newark, N.J./Saint Peter's Prep) banked in a shot with three seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 74-74 and force overtime.  The Knights improve to 3-6 with the victory, while Lafayette falls to 2-7.

The Knights scored first in overtime with sophomore Marques Townes (Edison, N.J./St. Joseph (Metuchen)) and O'Garro each hitting a free throw after a foul and technical foul were called on the same play.  Lafayette would respond with a three-pointer to take a 77-76 lead, but FDU answered with sophomore Earl Potts Jr. (Severn, Md./Archbishop Spalding ) making a layup and then a three-pointer to give the Knights a four-point lead.

Potts added a dunk with 40 seconds remaining to put FDU up 88-82 and sophomore Stephan Jiggetts (Forestville, Md./Bishop McNamara) and Darian Anderson (Washington, D.C./St. John's College ) sealed the win at the free throw line in the final seconds.

"Wow - that's all I can say," head coach Greg Herenda said after the victory.  "I have to give my guys credit - they all said in the huddle, 'we're going to win this game,' when we were down five points late.  The credit goes to the players for believing that they were going to win no matter what the circumstances were."
 
"I am so happy for Tyrone (O'Garro) - he made a huge play to get us into overtime, then he was huge defensively in the final 5 minutes.  He earned his captain stripes tonight."
 
Anderson scored 23 points and classmates Potts (20), Townes (18) and Jiggetts (10) joined him in double-digits.
 
Townes also grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds to record his first career double-double.

"Darian and Earl are growing into a great duo and on top of all that Marques also broke out and had 18 (points) and 12 (rebounds)," Herenda added.
 
"I told them their first road win was not going to be easy, but I never dreamt of a finish like that."
 
In the second half, the Leopards used a 51.7% (14-of-27) shooting performance to climb back into the game.  Lafayette tied the game at 60-60 just 12 minutes into the second half and quickly jumped ahead 62-60.  The Leopards would expand the lead to seven points with 3:47 left to play.
 
However, the Knights edged closer on layups by Anderson and freshman Mike Holloway (Pittsgrove, N.J./Arthur P. Schalick ).  Jiggetts cut the deficit to a single-point with a pair of free throws with 2:06 left to play, but a jumper by Lafayette's Nick Linder on the ensuing possession put the Leopards up 71-68.

Townes grabbed an offensive rebound with 1:32 remaining and then hit a tying three-pointer, but Lafayette answered again, setting the stage for O'Garro's tying layup.

In the first period, the Knights used a pair of runs to take a 44-33 lead into the half.  A 13-2 run stretching from 16:16 to 11:22 gave the Knights their first double-digit lead of the game.  After a Lafayette three-pointer cut the FDU lead to seven, the Knights again went on a run, this time scoring 11 unanswered points to take a 30-12 lead with 7:21 left in the half.

In total the Knights outscored Lafayette 24-5 over a nine minute stretch.

Anderson connected on 6-of-10 shots from the field and hit two-of-three three-pointers to lead all players with 14 points.

The Knights held a 48-44 edge in rebounding and recorded 16 assists, while committing just 13 turnovers.  FDU also forced the Leopards into 23 turnovers, including 11 steals.

Townes was 9-of-11 at the free throw line.  The Knights were 19-of-28 as a team at the line.

Holloway finished with eight points and seven rebounds.

Lafayette's Nick Linder led all scorers with 24 points, Bryce Scott added 22 for the Leopards.

The Knights will return to action on Friday, December 18 against Towson.  The game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. tip following the FDU women's basketball team's game against UMass Lowell.