PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team was unable to breakthrough against the stingy defense of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a 92-54 loss on Saturday night at the RAC.
 
For the second straight outing, freshman forward Noah Morgan led the Knights (3-6) with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with four rebounds. Senior guard Darian Anderson finished with 12 points, totaled four rebounds and three assists, while junior forward Mike Holloway Jr. scored six points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
 
The Scarlet Knights (8-3), who entered the game first in the nation in offensive rebounding and third in total rebounds, won the battle on the glass 49-30. In addition to their work on the boards, the home team shot 53.2 percent from the field and 41.2 percent (7-of-17) from three-point range.
 
Freshman guard Geo Baker and his junior backcourt mate Corey Sanders spearheaded the Scarlet Knights' attack with 19 points apiece. Baker amassed a double-double by dishing out 11 assists and scored his points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Following the loss head coach Greg Herenda said, "What can I say -- Rutgers played very well for the entire forty minutes and we simply did not. When they shoot the ball, share the ball and rebound it like that, they are a very difficult team to deal with in this building."

"As far as ourselves, I really can't really explain it. We thought we had a great week of preparation but I think not playing for a week really hurt the rhythm that we were developing. It's hard to say but we will go back and figure things out and get better. We have played all quality opponents and this stretch of road games is difficult but we will eventually benefit from this adversity." 
 
The Knights led 6-3 after back-to-back treys by Anderson and Darnell Edge but Rutgers responded with eight straight points highlighted by a fastbreak dunk by Mamadou Doucoure.
 
The Scarlet Knights built their first double-digit lead of the game, 19-9, with 13 minutes to play in the half thanks to 7-for-13 start from the field and a 3-for-4 effort from downtown. Over that span, FDU connected on just 3-of-12 overall.
 
Trailing 22-11, Noah Morgan knocked down a three for the Knights to get the deficit back under ten. Morgan's three-pointer failed to slow the momentum as the Scarlet Knights immediately answered with a bucket and ran away on a 22-2 run, which ballooned the lead to 46-18 with just under five minutes to play.
 
Across the game-changing run, the Scarlet Knights made all nine of their shots and held the Knights without a made basket on seven tries. A floater in the lane by Jahlil Jenkins with 3:39 to play in the half ended a seven-minute scoreless stretch for FDU, who trailed 48-22 at the break.
 
The Knights posted an 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) effort in the first half including 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from downtown, while the Scarlet Knights connected on 48.6 percent (18-of-37) overall and 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from behind the arc. Rutgers also won the battle on the glass in the first half, out-rebounding FDU 27-15.
 
Morgan splashed a three-pointer from the top of the key, which made it a 58-36 game five minutes into second half but the Knights would not get any closer. Morgan finished 3-of-5 from downtown in the loss.
 
The Knights were edged in the turnover battle 15-13 but the Scarlet Knights took nine more free throws (19-of-28) compared to FDU (11-of-19).
 
The Knights are back in action next Saturday, December 16 when they travel to Newark to take on NJIT. Tip-off is set for 4:00 p.m. at the new NJIT Wellness and Events Center.