HACKENSACK, N.J. –  The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team defeated Mount St. Mary's in a thrilling 73-72 Northeast Conference battle at the Rothman Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
After trailing by three at the half, the Knights (6-13, 3-5 NEC) took the lead and weathered a pair of runs by the Mountaineers (10-11, 4-4 NEC) in the second stanza to come away with the victory.
 
It was a total team effort by the Knights, who registered four players in double figures on the afternoon, led by junior guard Darnell Edge's 18-point performance. Edge nabbed five rebounds and five steals in the win, while freshman guard Jahlil Jenkins matched his career-high of 16 points for the third time this season and dished out five assists.
 
The Knights received a huge boost from the bench, particularly junior forwards Nadi Beciri and Dondre Rhoden, whose energy sparked a game-changing 18-3 run in the second half.
 
The Mount was propelled by the three-point shooting of freshman guard Jonah Antonio. Antonio buried five of the team's 13 3-pointers on the afternoon and finished with 17 points. Guard Junior Robinson led the team in scoring with 19 points and seven assists including a 4-of-11 performance from downtown.  Senior forward Chris Wray was 5-for-5 from the floor and logged a full statline of 12 points, 13 boards, five steals, three blocks and three assists in the loss.
 
The Mountaineers, who fired 39 of their 59 field goal attempts from behind the arc, finished 25-of-59 overall (42.4 percent) and 13-of-39 (33.3 percent) from three-point land.
 
The Knights shot 50 percent (29-of-58) for the game and 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from long range. After knocking down just 3-of-11 from deep in the first half, the team connected on 6-of-10 in the second half.

"I really do not know what to say other than we really, really needed to win that game and thank god we did," said head coach Greg Herenda following the victory. "I am so happy that the "Bergen Boys" Nadi and Dondre gave us that huge lift off of the bench that turned a seven-point deficit into a lead. With Darian Anderson out, we talked all week about having all hands on deck and those guys came up huge for us."

Herenda continued, "Junior Robinson is a great player in our league but I cannot say enough about my guy Jahlil Jenkins -- and he is only a freshman. He and Darnell are a great backcourt combination and they both came up huge for us."

"Now we need our students to come out on Thursday night to get behind this team. We have a young, exciting team and this gym should give us a great home court advantage here in February and into March. St. Francis Brooklyn is playing excellent basketball and we will need all hands on deck again as well as our students." 

The Knights host the Terriers of St. Francis Brooklyn next Thursday, January 25 at 7:00 p.m.
 
Robinson connected two of his team's three 3-pointers as the Mount scored the game's first nine points. They led 12-8 at the first media timeout as the Knights fended off the threes with a pair of dunks by Bishop and Mike Holloway Jr., which brought the home crowd to its feet.
 
A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Pat McNamara gave the Knights their first lead of the game 15-14, just under seven minutes into play, however, Omar Habwe immediately answered for the Mount with a four-point play.
 
The visitors would eventually build a lead as large as seven points before the Knights regrouped and sliced it the deficit to 37-34 at the break. Over the first 20 minutes of play, the Knights shot 50 percent from the field, while the Mountaineers logged a 46.4 percent clip. The Mount fired 18 of their 28 shots from behind the arc and connected on seven, while the Knights were 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from distance.
 
Edge and sophomore forward Kaleb Bishop led the Knights at the break with eight points apiece, while Bishop nabbed a team-high five rebounds. Coming off of a career-high 18 points against CCSU, Bishop finished with 11 on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds in the contest. Robinson's nine tallies paced the Mountaineers at the break and Wray had six points and eight boards in the stanza.
 
After the Mount scored the first five points of the half, the Knights answered with a 12-0 run aided by the energy of Beciri and Rhoden. Jenkins and fellow freshman Noah Morgan each connected on 3-pointers, while Beciri nabbed four rebounds – two offensive – and recorded a tip-in over that span. Rhoden grabbed three rebounds and his energetic defense helped hold the Mount to 0-for-4 during the run. A 3-pointer by Habwe ended the run and made it 46-45 FDU lead with 13 minutes to go.
 
With a dunk by Holloway and a pair of free throws by Edge, the Knights would build their lead up to nine points, 62-53, by the under-eight media timeout.  However, the Mount had another run in them as a pair of 3-pointers by Antonio led to an 8-0 run by the visitors.
 
The Knights weathered the storm and Edge ended the spurt with a 3-pointer of his own. With one minute to go, another dunk by Holloway pushed the Knights lead to six, 71-65.
 
In the final seconds, the Mount made things interesting again as Wray nabbed a steal in the backcourt and found Antonio for a layup to cut it to one with six ticks left.
 
Robinson had a three-point attempt from 25-feet out but it was off the mark as the Knights held on for the victory.