HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball team seeks a fourth straight win and a season split with Mount St. Mary's on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Saturday is also senior day for the FDU program as the Knights will honor a trio of seniors;
Zeynep Akgun,
Kiana Brown and
Brianna Thomas prior to tip.
QUICK HITTERS
• FDU's last four-game winning streak in NEC play was in 2010-11 when the Knights beat MSM, Wagner, St. Francis Brooklyn and LIU Brooklyn.
• FDU owns the second-longest winning streak in the NEC currently -- 3 games. The recent run has allowed the Knights to stay within 2 games of fourth in the standings. The top four seeds in the NEC Tournament host a first round play off game.
• FDU will honor the three graduating seniors prior to Saturday's contest; Zeynep Akgun, Kiana Brown and Brianna Thomas. The trio have made back-to-back NEC Tournaments and would the first senior class to go to three straight NEC Tournaments since the 2009 class.
SERIES SCORE
FDU is 3-2 in the last five meetings with Mount St. Mary's but the two lossess have come in the last two meetings with the Mountaineers. The Knights have won two straight at home vs the Mountaineers and are 15-9 all-time in Hackensack.
LAST TIME OUT
Fairleigh Dickinson led for over 37 minutes against Central Connecticut and shot a season-best 48-percent from the floor to win 77-64 over the Blue Devils. The win was the third straight for the Knights and kept FDU within two games of fourth place in the Northeast Conference standings. Four Knights were in double figures. Amina Markovic had 17 points and 14 rebounds. Courtney Blankenship poured in a career-high 16. Madelynn Comly extended her streak of scoring 10+ points to 10 games after tallying 14 and Kiana Brown added 12 points and four assists off the bench. FDU also made (18) and attempted (26) a season-high in free throws.
ABOUT MOUNT ST. MARY'S
The Mountaineers come in off a loss to Robert Morris, 70-58, which snapped a four-game winning streak. Overall this season Mount St. Mary's is 9-16 and 7-7 in NEC play, which puts them one game in front of Fairlegh Dickinson in the standings. The four-game winning streak was comprised of wins over Sacred Heart, Central Connecticut, Bryant and Saint Francis U. Caroline Hummell leads the offense for the Mount at 10.5 points per game. Alexis Carter leads the team in rebounding at 6.9 and is second in scoring at 9.3. The Mountaineers share the ball up and down the roster with four players over 30 assists this season.
WHERE POINTS COME FROM
FDU has scored 1502 points this season. 52.9% (798) of those have come from inside the arc. 28.9% (435) have come from three-pointers and the remaining 17.9% (269) have been scored via the free throw line. Compared to Mount St. Mary's, who gets 23.8% from the free throw line, 30.4% from three and 45.8% from two-point range.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINS
FDU has won its last two games by 13 points. The last time FDU won two straight NEC games by 10+ was back in 2011-12 against Wagner (86-49) and St. Francis Brooklyn (70-60).
PLAYOFF POSITIONING
A FDU win vs MSM would bring the two teams level in the standings at 7-8. If FDU, MSM and Bryant (enters tied with MSM at 7-7) all finish with the same record at the end, FDU will be the lowest seed of the three -- FDU went 1-3 vs those two teams this season (that is if FDU wins on Saturday).
