HACKENSACK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball team hosts LIU Brooklyn Thursday night at 7 p.m. for both Senior Night and the opportunity to clinch a Northeast Conference Tournament berth.
 
The Knights will honor the careers of each of their five graduating players – seniors Madelynn Comly, Peniel M'Bikata, Lucia Serrano-Ranz and Natalie Zamora, as well as graduate senior Emmanuella Edoka -- in a pregame ceremony held before tip-off at 7 p.m.
 
The game will be streamed live for free on NEC Front Row, and live stats will be available at fduknights.com.
 
ENTERING THE KNIGHT
The Knights (7-21, 4-13 NEC) rallied from 10 points down in the third quarter to take a one-point lead on a Madelynn Comly layup with 13.1 seconds left at CCSU Monday night, and the Knights came up with two big defensive stops to hold on for a 66-63 road victory. The win kept FDU's chances at making the NEC Tournament alive and also represented the largest comeback win of the season for the Knights. Comly led the team with 19 points and eight rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting. Freshmen Lindsey Mack and Rachael Niles each drained four three-pointers and finished with 14 points. Niles also dished out three assists and grabbed three rebounds plus made two free throws in the closing seconds to help seal the win.
 
SCENARIOS, SCENARIOS
The Knights enter Thursday night currently tied with CCSU for the eighth and final NEC Tournament spot, and the Knights own the tiebreaker due to a season sweep of the Blue Devils. A win Thursday night over LIU Brooklyn clinches the playoff spot for FDU and puts them into a NEC Quartfinal matchup with #1 seed Robert Morris on Monday, March 11. A Knights loss AND a CCSU loss to St. Francis Brooklyn also provides FDU the playoff spot. A Knights loss AND a CCSU win over St. Francis Brooklyn would grant CCSU the eighth playoff spot.
 
MILESTONE MOMENT
Comly became the 18th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points when she drained a three-pointer to bring the Knights back within one in the third quarter at Mount. Comly accomplished the feat in her 117th game and also in a gym located less than 20 miles from her hometown of Littlestown, Pennsylvania. Comly is the Knights' leading scorer this season, and the senior has averaged 12.8 ppg while shooting 53.8 percent from the field, 48.8 percent from three and 92.6 percent at the charity stripe in NEC games. She has scored in double figures in nine straight games and enters her final regular season game with 1,030 career points.
 
FRESHMEN STEP UP
Mack and Niles were big contributors to the Knights' victory over CCSU on Monday. Mack eclipsed her previous high of 12 points this season by making four threes and a layup, including a big three-pointer in the fourth quarter that gave FDU a 57-56 lead with three minutes to go. Niles also made four three-pointers on five attempts, including two in the fourth quarter. Her first one in the fourth period completed the 10-point comeback and tied the game at 49-49 with seven minutes left, and her second long ball made it 63-62 with under a minute left to help set up Comly's game-winning opportunity. Niles later sank two critical free throws with two seconds left to help seal the win.
 
STEALS AND BLOCKS
The Knights are second in the Northeast Conference in steals per game (8.5) and blocks per game (4.0), recording eight steals and four blocks at CCSU. FDU has finished with at least four blocks in 18 of 28 games and at least seven steals in 18 of 28 games this season. Senior Natalie Zamora leads the NEC with 2.3 steals per game, and senior Peniel M'Bikata is sixth with 1.8 swipes per game. Sophomore Madison Stanley is fourth in the NEC with 1.3 blocks per game, and junior Lauren Francillon is tied for sixth with 1.1 blocks per game. The Knights also rank second in the league in free throw percentage (73.3) and third in points allowed (65.8), three-point field goal defense (32.1) and turnover margin (+0.1).
 
SERIES SCORE
The Knights enter Thursday's game with a 43-30 all-time record against LIU Brooklyn and have won four of the last five overall meetings. The Knights won the previous matchup this season with the Blackbirds in Brooklyn, 69-52, with the Knights outscoring the Blackbirds 19-8 in the second quarter to gain an advantage they would hold all through the second half. Junior Charee Osborne led FDU with 16 points, while Francillon totaled 13 points and seven rebounds, and M'Bikata added 11 points, seven boards and five assists. The Knights are 21-13 against the Blackbirds in Hackensack and have won two of the last three home games against LIU, with the exception being last season's 62-53 loss.
 
SCOUTING LIU BROOKLYN
The Blackbirds (4-24, 3-14 NEC) have lost three straight games and are mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the NEC Tournament. The Blackbirds this past weekend fell at home on Senior Day to CCSU in a game they needed to win to remain in the hunt for the eighth playoff spot, and then on Monday dropped a home game to Bryant, 69-54. Jeydah Johnson leads the Blackbirds with 13.9 points per game, while freshman Brandy Thomas is averaging 10.3 rebounds per game to go with 13.5 points per game, one of only two players in the NEC to be averaging a double-double.
 
AROUND THE NEC
The top two seeds for the #NECWBB Tournament are set in stone with Robert Morris as the top seed and Sacred Heart as the second seed. Saint Francis U and St. Francis Brooklyn are fighting for the third seed and will host a quarterfinal game regardless of Thursday's outcomes, while Bryant, Mount St. Mary's and Wagner are all tied for fifth. Other matchups besides FDU-LIU and CCSU-SFBK include Saint Francis U at Robert Morris, Sacred Heart at Mount St. Mary's and Wagner at Bryant.