HACKENSACK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team dropped its final non-conference home game 90-71 to Iona College at Stratis Arena on Wednesday night.
 
The Knights (2-6) were unable to slow the hot-shooting Gaels (5-3) who built a large lead early and held on the rest of the way.
 
Sophomore forward Mike Holloway paced the Knights with 17 points and six rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting in the loss, while the Gaels were led by Jordan Washington, who finished with a game-high 18 points.
 
Five Gaels reached double-figures in the win including Schadrac Casimir's 16 points and 14 apiece from Sam Cassell Jr. and Rickey McGill. Cassell Jr. was especially on target from 3-point range where he connected on all four of his attempts.

Following the loss head coach Greg Herenda said, "That's one you just forget about and you move on from. Give Iona the credit but we were just not very good in any category. That is not how we practice or who we are."
 
Iona, who entered the game 24^th in the nation in 3-pointers per game at 10.0, opened the night just 1-of-7 from downtown but the game remained tight early on as the Knights struggled to capitalize.  

However, the home team did receive a spark from freshman forward Kaleb Bishop, who started the game a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and totaled 13 first-half points. Bishop's 13 tallies set a new career-high for the freshman and he added seven rebounds on the night.
 
Thanks to a 14-4 run in the final 10 minutes of the half, Iona built a seven-point lead, 40-33 with 3:11 to go. Following the slow start from deep, the Gaels found the touch knocking down five of their next six as they extended their lead to 54-35 at the break.
 
Three Gaels netted double-figures in the first half led by Casimir's 14 points. Overall, the defending MAAC Champions shot 61.8 percent from the field, while the Knights posted a 36.1 percent clip, including 3-of-14 (21.4%) from 3-point range.
 
Iona began the second half the way they finished the first, as Cassell Jr. drained a pair of 3-pointers, which pushed the lead to 60-35. Their cushion continued to grow as they opened the stanza with a 12-2 run for a 29-point lead, 66-37.
 
The Knights showed resilience by countering with 11 straight points of their own, highlighted by a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Darian Anderson. Over that stretch, the Knights defense locked in and forced four Iona turnovers.
 
Despite the late push, the Knights were unable to get closer than 16 points as the Gaels held on for the victory.
 
Junior guard Stephan Jiggetts dished out a team-high six assists to go along with 14 points in the loss, while Darnell Edge finished with eight points and a career-best six rebounds.
 
The Knights welcomed back Earl Potts Jr. and Ghassan Nehme tonight after the duo had missed all seven of the Knights' games to open the season due to injuries. Potts Jr. scored five points and nabbed four rebounds, while Nehme also tallied five points to go along with three boards in limited minutes.

Herenda added, "The only thing that was positive was that we got Earl and Gus back on the floor tonight. We finally have our full complement of players back. We have three non-conference games to get our rotations set for conference play. We will be fine."
 
Although they only turned the ball over six times and forced Iona to commit 12 miscues, the Knights were unable to overcome a rough shooting night as they converted 25-of-70 (35.7%) overall and just 6-of-26 (23.1%) from the behind the arc. The Knights have now won the turnover battle in six of their eight games this season but are just 2-4 in such contests.
 
The Gaels finished the night 33-of-64 (51.6%) from the field and 10-of-24 (41.7%) from long range. They also thrived from the line where they converted 14-of-15 (93.3%). 
 
Fairleigh Dickinson returns to action when they travel to Baltimore, Md. to take on Towson this Saturday, December 10 at 2 p.m.