LORETTO, Pa. - FDU men's basketball suffered just their second road Northeast Conference loss of the season Thursday as the Knights, now 16-14, 9-6 NEC, fell to Saint Francis U (Pa.) by a final score of 82-72 at DeGol Arena.

Trading early buckets from the tip, Saint Francis U got on the board first with a Maxwell Land three-pointer assisted by Josh Cohen, the latter in the running for NEC Player of the Year. Knights junior Sean Moore answered back quickly with a floater on the other end of the floor to cut the early deficit to one. Moore's two-time teammate Grant Singleton landed FDU's first triple of the game to give the Burgundy and Blue a 5-3 lead with over 18 minutes to play in the opening period.

Singleton's three-pointer was the first of just two that FDU would score in the first half with the team going 2-for-10 behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes. Points quickly started to rack up by way of the free throw line as the teams combined to be whistled for 22 first half fouls, an even 11 each, with FDU earning 10 points from the charity stripe and the home Red flash pocketing 13.

Down one at the half, 39-38, Saint Francis U came back out after the break swinging on a 6-2 run over 1:10 that featured just one Knights' field goal attempt, a make by guard Demetre Roberts. Keeping the ball, each side committed three turnovers in the final 20 minutes, though FDU would be unable to re-take the lead after last standing in front with 6:21 remaining in the first half.

On the 29 field goal attempts - the same as in the first half - FDU's numbers went down for 11 makes, a mark of 37.9 percent, down from 44.8 percent in the first.

Joe Munden Jr. was the first Knight to double figures in the game, tallying 11 points spread between the first half and the infant seven minutes of the final period.

Towards the final third, SFU pulled away with seven of the game's final 11 points, leading to a wholesale change by Knights' head coach Tobin Anderson with 1:12 to play in regulation.

With the Knights' loss and Merrimack's monster home win over Central Connecticut, FDU faces St. Francis Brooklyn in the regular season finale on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. live on NEC Front Row from Stratis Arena inside the Rothman Center for Senior Day in what is shaping up to be Decision Day in the nine-team conference as the eight teams eligible for participation in the NEC tournament duke it out for seeding with four games remaining on the league docket.

Tickets for Saturday's game against the Terriers are on-sale now at FDUKnights.com/Tickets and tickets for the Knights' home NEC tournament quarterfinal game on March 1 at 7 p.m. are available for purchase at FDUKnights.com/MBBQF.

The 2022-23 men's basketball season is presented by Bogota Savings Bank.