HACKENSACK, N.J. – Three players in double figures and a plus-18 rebounding margin keyed Fairleigh Dickinson's 75-59 win over Longwood in the home opener for the Knights on Friday night.
Brianna Thomas led the way for the Knights with 16 points and five rebounds.
Madelynn Comly and
Kiana Brown were also in double figures with 14 and 12 respectively.
Fairleigh Dickinson (1-1) used an 8-0 run to close the first quarter and preserved that lead heading into the locker room with the score 33-24. The Knights were only 2-of-19 (10.5%) in the opening half from behind the arc but forced 12 Longwood (0-3) turnovers.
The Knights' offense started clicking in the third quarter. Thomas extended the lead out to 10 (38-28) on a three-pointer with 7:46 on the clock. Another bucket from Thomas moved the lead to 16 (49-33) with 3:09 to play. Fairleigh Dickinson would push to lead to 21 (60-39) as Comly beat the buzzer on a transition layup after she stole the ball from Micaela Ellis at mid-court to end the quarter.
Fairleigh Dickinson was 10-of-23 from the field in the third and hit 5-of-11 threes while holding Longwood to 5-of-15 from the field and 0-for-3 from behind the arc.
The lead for the Knights got to as many as 29 (70-41) on a layup from
Lauren Francillon before the Lancers started to chip away at the margin. The Lancers got it down to 16 with 22 seconds to play on a free throw from Kemari Jones.
On the night, Fairleigh Dickinson hit nine three-pointers, which is the most for the Knights since also hitting nine against Central Connecticut back in January of 2014. Outside of the double figure scorers, four Knights scored at least seven points. Francillon finished with eight as well as
Peniel M'Bikata.
Amina Markovic added seven points and grabbed 13 rebounds, which was a new career high, and
Rainey Cox chipped in seven points in six minutes of action.
Jada Russell led the Lancers with 15 points. Dayna Rouse added 11 along with three steals and two blocks off the bench.
Fairleigh Dickinson returns to action on Monday when they travel to NJIT.
