HACKENSACK, N.J. - #2 FDU men's basketball began their NEC tournament quarterfinal matchup on a 7-0 run and never looked back as the Knights' raced past #7 St. Francis Brooklyn 83-75 to advance to the NEC Men's Basketball Championship Semifinal on Saturday, March 4 at Straits Arena inside the Rothman Center.

The Knights, who finished the regular season 17-14, opened the scoring affair on a 7-0 run before the Terriers got on the board nearly three and a half minutes into the opening period. FDU shot the lights out of the ball, knocking down 18-of-33 attempts from the field - a mark of 54.5 percent in the first half. While St. Francis Brooklyn (14-16, 7-9 NEC) was never out of the ballgame, the Burgundy and Blue opened up a 16-point lead, their largest of the night, midway through the opening half as senior Heru Bligen dropped the floater to give the Knights their 30th point of the evening, going up 30-14 on St. Francis Brooklyn.

Zion Bethea would answer back with a pair of triples to cut the Terriers' deficit to 10 in an 83-second span while FDU was held to just one try on the floor in almost a minute and a half. Knights sophomore Ansley Almonor, the 2022-23 NEC Most Improved Player, was electric from behind the arc, contributing 3-of-4 three-point shooting in the first half, logging over 15 triples against the Terriers this season.

Leading 45-30 at the break, FDU crashed the defensive glass in the opening 20 minutes for Tobin Anderson's squad as the Knights tallied 13 caroms on hte other end, later tacking on 12 in the second half.

Coming out of halftime, FDU was held without a field goal until nearly three minutes in when junior Sean Moore knocked-down the three-ball for his 13th point of the evening. The Columbus, Ohio native and newcomer to the Knights this season finished tied with Almonor for a game-high 18 points. The Terriers, whom FDU swept in the regular season, came within four before the Knights opened an eight-point lead to hold on for the quarterfinal victory, the 16th home win in NEC tournament play.

Bethea and Tedrick Wilcox Jr. each logged with 17 points to pace the Terriers while the squad's 10 players combined for 12 turnovers in the quarterfinal battle.

In his opening statement, FDU head coach Tobin Anderson commented that "First of all, great tournament, playoff, basketball game. I thought every time we had a chance to pull away, credit to them, credit to their players, to Glenn [Bracia]. They had a couple guys coming off injuries, [Rob] Higgins and [Zion] Bethea who are terrific. I thought we played well, first half we played great and they started to make threes, some deep threes, and every chance we had to pull away, they hit the big shot to stay in the game. We got some big stops and our guys have been great all-year long and we know every playoff game is going to be a battle and credit to these guys [Almonor and Moore] and a bunch of other guys too to play the way we did down the stretch."

"Obviously disappointed but proud of my guys," remarked Terriers head coach Glenn Braica. "We had a very interesting season in terms of injuries; it's been difficult to practice at times, we've had guys in and out of the lineup. I'm proud of the guys for stepping up when guys have been out. These kids are good kids and if we can keep this group together, I think we have a chance to be really, really good next year."

After the slate of NEC quarterfinal matchups concluded and the re-seeding occurred in the tournament bracket, FDU has been paired up with #3 Saint Francis U with the Red Flash making the trip to Hackensack for the second time this season at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 4 live on ESPN3, SNY and NEC Front Row. Tickets are on-sale now at FDUKnights.com/MBBSF.

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