BRONX, N.Y. - With 6:21 to play in the opening period, the score was 18 all, but the fifth tied point of the game would be the last as Fordham opened up an 80-52 win over FDU men's basketball Thursday at Rose Hill Gym. The loss moves FDU to 4-5 overall on the season and is the fourth-straight suffered by the Knights.

Early on, FDU took a lead off a Heru Bligen (Glenn Dale, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal) old-fashion three-point play to put FDU ahead 7-6 in the infant minutes of the non-conference bout. The lead would be short-lived as Fordham saw contributions from several shooters to push ahead into double-digits, reaching a 37-23 halftime lead after the aforementioned six-minute mark.

Just two players - one from each team - made three field goals in the first half in FDU's Joe Munden Jr. (Harlem, N.Y./Monsignor Scanlan) and Fordham's Japhet Medor.

FDU found some magic in the second half when Davin Francis (Brooklyn, N.Y./South Shore) popped FDU's second three-pointer of the night which came in the final three minutes of the game.

The Knights fell victim to Fordham's edge forcing turnovers as the Rams came into Thursday's tilt forcing opponents to an average of 17.33 turnovers a night; FDU had 24 turnovers.

Holding Fordham to just over 44 percent from the field, FDU had trouble clicking offensively with two of the Northeast Conference's top scorers shut down in Almonor and Jo'el Emanuel (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern). Almonor and Emanuel combined to shoot 0-for-9.

Sean Moore (Columbus, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) paced FDU with 12 points on 4-9 shooting and eight rebounds.

"We were really fighting for a long time there and then they [Fordham] went 1-3-1 and we didn't handle that [1-3-1] well. There's a reason they're [Fordham] one of the top 20 teams in the country in turning people over and we certainly played right into their hand," said head coach Jack Castleberry after the setback.

"I thought we had a decent game plan to deal with the 1-3-1, but clearly we didn't and that's on nobody but me. The effort was there; intensity wise, the execution wasn't up to what we need to have to be an elite-level program and hand it to Fordham, they do a bunch of different stuff to get you out of your game and they're disruptive."

FDU heads to NJIT as the Knights' six-game road trek continues on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ at the Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center in Newark, N.J.

Connect with FDU men's basketball on X and Instagram, @FDUKnightsMBB.

Bogota Savings Bank is the presenting sponsor for the 2023-24 FDU men's basketball season.
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