PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team fell to Rutgers, 82-69 at The Rutgers Athletic Center on Wednesday night.
 
The Knights (2-8) were unable to overcome a tremendous rebounding effort by the Scarlet Knights (10-1), who remain unbeaten (8-0) at home this season.
 
Darian Anderson paced the Knights with 22 points, four assists and three rebounds, while Mike Holloway tallied 14 points and Earl Potts Jr. added 13 tallies. Freshman forward Kaleb Bishop chipped in six points to go along with a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.
 
True to form, Rutgers, who entered tonight's game ranked in the top 10 nationally in rebounding, took care of business on the glass out-rebounding FDU 43-31, including doubling-up the Knights 16-8 in offensive boards.
 
In the victory, the home team shot 31-of-60 (51.7%) from the floor but struggled from the line, connecting on just 14-of-29 (48.3%). FDU knocked down 27-of-60 (45%) overall, 7-of-22 (31.8%) from the behind the arc and 8-of-11 (72.7%) from the charity stripe.

"I am extremely proud of my team and their effort tonight. That was a hard fought college basketball game and Rutgers proved to be just too good and too big tonight," said head coach Greg Herenda. "The difference in that game was Rutgers making five 3's in the second half that opened things up for them. But I just loved how we competed against a tough team in a difficult building."
 
FDU trailed 17-15 but started hot from 3-point range, converting three of their first four. Anderson set the tone for the Knights with eight of the team's first 15 points, including a pair of treys.
 
Early on, the Knights fought hard to not only keep Rutgers off of the glass but to crash the offensive boards themselves. After Holloway put back an offensive rebound, he then knocked down a jumper from the top of the key and allowed the Knights to nab their first lead since the early stages, 27-26, with eight minutes to go in the half.
 
With FDU leading 32-30, the Scarlet Knights netted the final eight points of the stanza and carried a 38-32 advantage into the break.
 
FDU limited Rutgers to just 1-of-9 (11.1%) from downtown but the Scarlet Knights shot 51.6 percent (16-31) overall from the field. FDU was limited to just one free throw attempt in the half and shot 14-for-32 (43.8%) from the floor in the half. Anderson and Potts Jr. scored eight points apiece to lead the way.
 
Corey Sanders and and C.J. Gettys each tallied eight points to pace the Rutgers offense, while the team's leading scorer did his work on the glass with 10 first-half rebounds.
 
The Knights opened the half with five straight points courtesy of a Stephan Jiggetts floater and a corner 3 by Anderson, however, the home team counter-punched with a 14-6 run and built a nine-point lead with 13 minutes to go. Jiggetts, who entered the night as the top assist man in the Northeast Conference at 5.1 per contest, finished with eight points and three assists on the night. 
 
After the Knights closed to within four, Rutgers answered with a dunk by Freeman and 3-pointers by Sa Candido and Issa Thiam to build a 67-57 lead with eight minutes to play.
 
Despite cutting it to single-digits in the final five minutes, the Knights were never able to close within one possession as Rutgers held on for the victory.
 
The Knights kept Rutgers' leading scorer Deshawn Freeman to just six points but he grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds in the win. Offensively, four Scarlet Knights scored in double-figures with Mike Williams and Sanders topping the scoresheet with 15 points each. Following the cold start from long range, Rutgers knocked down 5-of-7 from 3-point range in the second half, which aided them in the win.
 
"My guys have been playing so many good opponents on their floors and now we are off to Cincinnati to play a Top 25 team. The last few weeks will prove to be so beneficial to our team but right now I have nothing but pride for each and every player that put a blue jersey on tonight. The best is yet to come." 

Fairleigh Dickinson closes out non-conference action this Saturday, December 17 when they travel to No. 23 Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m.