Game 19
Fairleigh Dickinson (5-13, 2-5 NEC) vs Mount St. Mary's (10-10, 4-3 NEC)
Date: Saturday, January 20, 2018
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: Rothman Center – Hackensack, N.J.
Coverage: NEC Front Row

The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team returns home to host Mount St. Mary's in the first of two meetings between the teams this Saturday, January 20 at 4:30 p.m. The game will follow the 2:00 p.m. Fairleigh Dickinson women's game against Sacred Heart.
 
The Series...Tied 28-28
at FDU..16-10
Last Five...2-3
Streak...L2
Last Meeting...Mount 79, FDU 74 (2/18/17 at FDU)
 
Opening Tip: The Knights will look to snap a four-game skid when they host the defending NEC Champion Mountaineers at the Rothman Center on Saturday afternoon. 
 
The Knights are coming off of a last-second loss at CCSU, while the Mountaineers saw their four-game win streak snapped on Thursday night in an 81-73 loss at St. Francis Brooklyn.
 
Playing without their top scorer and one of the program's best players of all-time, Darian Anderson, the Knights will look for offensive contributions from other players. At CCSU on Thursday, it was sophomore Kaleb Bishop who took the reins by scoring a career-high 18 points. 
 
The Knights lead the NEC with 8.6 steals per game this season and have been strong at defending the three-point shot holding opponents to 33.7% (3rd in the NEC). That will be a key as The Mount is second in the NEC in three-point field goal percentage at 36.2% and makes nearly 11 3-pointers per game. 
 
The Mountaineers offense is led by senior guard Junior Robinson, who is 15th in the country with 21.9 points per game. Robinson is joined by Jonah Antonio (11.7) and Greg Alexander (10.7) in double figures this season, while Chris Wray scores 8.9 points per game and grabs a team-high 8.2 rebounds per contest.
 
After dropping their first two games in conference play, the Mount rattled off wins over Sacred Heart, Bryant, CCSU and Saint Francis U. 
 
Knights Last Time Out: Sophomore forward Kaleb Bishop scored a career-high 18 points but the Knights were edged 66-65 by Central Connecticut State at Detrick Gymnasium on Thursday night. The Knights (5-13, 2-5 NEC) battled to overcome a nine-point, second-half deficit but ultimately came up just shy as CCSU's junior center Deion Bute's dunk with three seconds remaining put the home team in front for good. The loss snaps the Knights' seven-game win streak over the Blue Devils.
 
The Blue Devils (10-10, 3-4 NEC) led for the first 39:50 of the game until Bishop calmly drained a pair at the line to give the Knights their first lead of the contest, 65-64, with 10 seconds to play. After a timeout, the Blue Devils drew up the game-winning play with junior forward Tyler Kohl driving to the rim and dishing off to Bute for the game-winning slam.
 
Four Knights scored in double figures led by Bishop's performance. The sophomore forward was 6-of-14 from the field with eight rebounds and two steals and connected on both of his tries from three-point range. Junior forward Mike Holloway Jr. scored 14 with seven rebounds, junior guard Darnell Edge had 13 points and freshman guard Jahlil Jenkins scored 10.
 
Bute led the way for the Blue Devils with 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting, while senior guard Mustafa Jones finished with 14 points and six rebounds. As a team, CCSU shot 48.2 percent from the field but just 4-of-21 (19 percent) from downtown. Bute's work in the paint helped his team earn a 42-30 advantage in points in the paint.
 
Herenda Postgame:
"We just could not come up with the big stop or the big rebound that is necessary to win a road conference game. We need to execute better on both ends to finish that game off." 
 
"We have had two very difficult endings to games in this state [Connecticut] but we just need to regroup and get ready for Saturday."

All-Time Record: With the loss at CCSU, the Knights all-time program record sits at an even .500 (914-914).
 
Kaleb's Rising: High-Flying sophmore forward Kaleb Bishop has started the last five games for the Knights and poured in a career-high 18 points to go along with eight rebounds on Thursday at CCSU. In addition, he is always a threat to make the highlight reel and recently made a SportsCenter Top 10 appearance after dunking on LIU Brooklyn.
 
Balanced Scoring: Four Knights are averaging double figures in scoring this season. In 12 of the Knights' 18 games four or more players have scored in double figures.  The team has logged five in double figures three different times this season including seven double-digit scorers against Kean.
 
Holloway Leading the Way: Junior forward Mike Holloway is on a roll as of late, tallying double-doubles in each of the Knights' two of the lastt three outings. Holloway was named an NEC Prime Performer for his work last week as he averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds on a robust 58.1 percent shooting effort. The Pittsgrove, New Jersey native went off for 24 points and 13 rebounds on Saturday against Robert Morris to help lead the Knights to a 41-34 advantage on the glass.
 
Next Up: The Knights host St. Francis Brooklyn at the Rothman Center next Thursday, January 25 at 7:00 p.m.