Game 20
Fairleigh Dickinson (6-13, 3-5 NEC) vs St. Francis Brooklyn (8-12, 5-3 NEC)
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2018
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Rothman Center – Hackensack, N.J.
Coverage: NEC Front Row
The Series...FDU leads 55-40
at FDU..33-19
Last Five...3-2
Streak... W2
Last Meeting...FDU 79, St. Francis Brooklyn 73 (1/26/17 at SFBK)
The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team looks to make it two in a row when they welcome St. Francis Brooklyn to the Rothman Center on Thursday night. The FDU coaching staff will be participating in Coaches vs Cancer by wearing sneakers along with their suits during the game.
More information and donations
In addition, prior to tip-off the team will honor senior guard
Darian Anderson's career accolades. Anderson will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing foot surgery on Monday.
At halftime, the Knights will host a ceremony for Charlie McGill, who is a long-time cartoonist and has been contributing life-like drawings of local athletes for the Bergen Record's "Athlete of the Week" spotlight for the past several decades. Charlie will be honored at halftime for his talent, his commitment, and his contributions to the Bergen County sports scene.
Opening Tip
<> The Knights are coming off of a thrilling victory over Mount St. Mary's at the Rothman Center last Saturday.
<> In the contest, the Mount fired 39 3-pointers -- the most by an FDU opponent since at least 1998.
<> The Knights' last four games have been decided by a total of 13 points with the last two by a margin of just one point.
<> Senior guard
Darian Anderson has been ruled out for the remainder of the season following foot surgery on Monday morning. Anderson is leading the Knights with 14.1 points per game this season.
<> The St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers edged the Bryant Bulldogs, 85-80, to win their second consecutive NEC contest on Saturday afternoon at the Pope Center. The Terriers, who are now 7-2 on their home court, improved to 8-12 overall and 5-3 in the NEC.
<> Junior Glenn Sanabria continued his strong shooting this season as the guard scored a team-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including a 5-for-9 performance from behind the arc in the win over Bryant. Sanabria was named College Madness NEC Men's Basketball Player of the Week.
<> St. Francis is fourth in the NEC at 73.2 ppg and third in both steals (7.4 spg) and free throw percentage (72.3 percent).
<> Soph guard Rasheem Dunn is 9th in the NEC with 15.2 ppg, while Sanabria's assist/turnover ratio is tops at 2.57.
Knights Last Time Out: 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.
Herenda Postgame:
"I really do not know what to say other than we really, really needed to win that game and thank god we did. 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."
"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."
All-Time Record: With the win over Mount St. Mary's last Saturday, the Knights' all-time program record sits one game north of .500 at 915-914.
Balanced Scoring: Four Knights are averaging double figures in scoring this season and freshman guard
Jahlil Jenkins is just shy at 9.9 ppg. In 13 of the Knights' 19 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.
Kaleb's Rising: High-Flying sophmore forward
Kaleb Bishop has started the last six games for the Knights and poured in a career-high 18 points to go along with seven rebounds on January 18 at CCSU. He earned NEC Primetime Performer honors this week after averaging 14.5 points and eight rebounds on 50 percent shooting. 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.
Turn Them Over: The Knights have relied on their ability to turn over the opponent this season. They force a turnover on 21.1 percent of possessions and boast a 10.7 percent steal rate, which is 34th best in the nation. The team has five or more steals in all but one game this season.
Give Us That: Featuring one of the program's most adept defenders in Anderson, the Knights added a slew of speedy counterparts this season including freshman guard
Jahlil Jenkins. Jenkins nabbed five steals against Princeton, while junior guard
Darnell Edge totaled seven against Kean and five more against Mount on Jan 20, which has helped the Knights to a 8.5 steals per game average this season -- top-20 in the nation.
Darian's Legacy: Senior guard
Darian Anderson was lost for the season after undergoing foot surgery on Monday, January 22. Anderson concludes his illustrious career as one the program's best of all-time. Some notes on Darian...
Anderson's illustrious career concludes with a myriad of accomplishments including a 2016 Northeast Conference Championship, a pair of All-NEC Second Team selections and two NABC All-District awards.
Anderson started the first 86 games of his career with the Knights before missing his first-ever game last season. The Washington, D.C. native is the only player in school history to reach 1,500 points and dish out 300 assists.
In addition to his 1,538 career points, which rank eighth all-time at FDU, Anderson finishes his tenure second in steals (201), third in 3-pointers (170) and seventh in both assists (354) and made field goals (541). Additionally, Anderson's 1,362 career field goal attempts are the most by any player in the program's 68-year history.
Across his 106 career games, Anderson averaged 14.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists with a 39.7 percent field goal percentage and 77.7 percent free throw clip.
Next Up: The Knights are on the road to take on Bryant this Saturday, January 27 at 1:00 p.m. in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
