HACKENSACK, N.J. – Despite a spirited second-half rally, the Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball team suffered its first defeat of the season in a 63-57 loss to Lafayette in the Rothman Center.
 
Trailing 32-23 at halftime, the Knights (1-1) outscored the Leopards (1-0) 22-11 in the third period to go up 45-43 with 10 minutes left. Lafayette, however, utilized a 6-0 run midway through the fourth period, and FDU could not recover despite making it a two-possession game in the final minute.
 
Senior Natalie Zamora recorded her first career double-double in leading the Knights with 15 points and 11 rebounds while recording three steals and two assists. She and senior Peniel M'Bikata each made three triples, and M'Bikata finished with nine points.
 
"I'm really proud of the team being down 10 and taking a four-point lead in the second half," head coach Peter Cinella said after the game. "Got to give Lafayette credit, they are a well-coached team. They had a tremendous post player who had a good game. I'm happy with how we took care of the ball, commiting only eight turnovers. I thought we had a really good run of moving the ball and hitting open threes with Natalie and Penny [M'Bikata]. We know what we have to work on."
 
Zamora hit one of her three-pointers as FDU's first basket of the game, but Lafayette rode a 15-2 run to go up by 11 late in the first period. Freshman Makayla Thompson ended the run with a jumper, and freshman Lindsey Mack followed with a three-pointer to make it 16-10.
 
The Leopards scored the next seven points to go back up by double-digits and carried their nine-point advantage into halftime.
 
Coming out of the break, sophomore Madison Stanley made a layup off a feed from senior Madelynn Comly, and later on, Stanley again made a layup that sparked a FDU rally.
 
M'Bikata hit a three from the wing after Zamora stole a pass to make it 38-30, and Zamora ripped another steal from a Lafayette player and finished the transition layup to cut the deficit to six.
 
Freshman Rachael Niles made it a four-point game with a long jumper from the wing, and M'Bikata a minute later made her second three-pointer of the game to trim the deficit to one. The Leopards countered with a layup, but another M'Bikata triple gave FDU its first lead since the first period, 42-40, with 3:48 in the third.
 
Zamora sank another triple to extend the lead to five, but Lafayette slowly worked back to take the lead again with a Natalie Kucowski layup with 7:31 remaining, and Lafayette built its new lead up to nine before a Stanley layup ended the run.
 
The Leopards increased the lead to as many as 10 with 1:47 left, but the Knights showed strong will in continuing to fight back. Niles four of the next five points, and Zamora finished her night with her final three-pointer with 14.7 seconds left.
 
Lafayette, however, ran out the clock to hold on and win the game.
 
For the Leopards, Kucowski led all players with 29 points and 16 rebounds.
 
Stanley finished with eight points, six rebounds and two blocks. Graduate senior Emmanuella Edoka started in her first game with the Knights, recording two points and one rebound in nine minutes.
 
The Knights forced 16 turnovers on defense while committing only eight of their own, but Lafayette was strong on the boards, leading 54-38 in total rebounds.
 
Up next, FDU plays its first and furthest road game of the season when it travels to Colorado to take on Air Force on Friday, November 16, at 7 p.m. MST (9 p.m. EST).