NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – FDU men's basketball's (6-9, 0-1 NEC) game-high six-point lead couldn't get over the four-minute mark as the Knights dropped the 2023-24 Northeast Conference opener 60-56 to defending NEC tournament champion Merrimack (7-8, 1-0 NEC) at Lawler Arena.
Thursday's tilt was a rematch of the NEC title game a season ago.
"I think our best basketball is in front of us," said head coach
Jack Castleberry following his first league game as a head coach. "I thought the effort we played with in the second half showed what our identity is again. We put two really good efforts back-to-back coming after Christmas.
"Merrimack has a unique scheme and that's not something you see every day. The reality is they executed their scheme better than we executed ours and we had our chances. Missed shots late down the stretch hurt us. We have guys who can make plays but tonight wasn't our night."
Senior guard
Joe Munden Jr. (Harlem, N.Y./Monsignor Scanlan) drew a pair of foul shots in the game's first minute, hitting both. FDU had just one free throw try in the first 20 minutes of the 2023 finale at then-No. 11/9 Illinois.
As play continued, the Warriors snapped a 1-for-4 field goal shooting spell with Bryan Etumnu flushing a dunk to even things off at nine to tie the game for the first time with just over 14 and a half to go in the opening period.
After opening with 25 percent shooting (1-4), Merrimack went off to hit four of their following six tries to go up on top.
FDU crashed the glass in the first 10 minutes as the Knights took away seven rebounds on the defensive glass while holding Merrimack to just one offensive carom in the same stretch.
Speaking on the Knights' rebounding, in his postgame comments Castleberry remarked, "We've been struggling with offensive and defensive rebounding, more so on the defensive side. Our team got better tonight and we're trending in the right direction."
Playing just 30 miles from his native Dorchester, Mass., graduate student guard
DeVante Jamison (Jeremiah E. Burke) connected with sophomore forward
Jo'el Emanuel (Sufern, N.Y./Suffern) for a dunk to cook a quick 5-1 scoring run for FDU.
Merrimack answered back nearly immediately and opened a five-point lead which was slashed by a Munden Jr. jumper from the free throw line.
In the final minutes of the opening period, Merrimack rallied for a seven-point advantage – the largest of the game for either team – and went off for a 9-2 run after being held scoreless in the prior three minutes.
Jamison and Emanuel sent FDU into the halftime locker room within four with another highlight tape endline-out-of-bounds dunk off an inbound. Jamison's homecoming ended with four assists, three rebounds and one steal, though he went without a field goal.
Merrimack's Jordan Derkack went into the break hot and helped lead the two-time NEC regular season champions out of the intermission, shooting 5-of-6. The two teams would trade catch-and-shoot buckets with FDU senior forward
Sean Moore (Columbus, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) closing in to make it a one-point game at 33-32.
Both teams came out firing on all cylinders in the early minutes of the second with the two deadlocked at 10 points each in the first four minutes of the period.
FDU's press kept the Warriors scoreless for a more-than-two-minute stretch with newcomer forward
Terrence Brown (Minneapolis, Minn/Columbia Heights) floating in the layup to cut the Warriors' lead to two with 13:18 to go in regulation.
Moments later, junior forward
Ansley Almonor (Spring Valley, N.Y./St. Joseph Regional [Mont.] popped a triple and put the Knights in front, 41-38, as the clock trickled down to 12:38.
The reigning NEC Most Improved Player would finish a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc and paced the Knights with 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. Almonor was just a rebound shy of his first double-double of the campaign.
Merrimack's Adam Clark hit a three late to put them in front, but Almonor had an immediate answer to return the lead to one.
Both programs shot 37.5 percent from the field in the opening 10 minutes of the final period.
Moore would have a huge bucket to give FDU a four-point cushion in transition as he took it to the rack with his first steal of the game. After the timeout that followed, Moore ran it back and repeated: scoop, steal slam.
Free throws were the name of the game late as Merrimack knocked-down a pair to create a two-point game.
Tied with 5:18 to play, Brown snapped a Warriors' run of six unanswered points to bring FDU back up a pair after hitting both ends of a one-and-one trip.
"It was great to see TB [Brown] get into a rhythm," said Castleberry. "I think he's been trying to figure out where he is and tonight his aggressiveness and confidence was great to see."
FDU went without a field goal make during a 10-2 Merrimack run that stretch a four-minute block starting at 8:19 of the second.
In the double bonus late, FDU couldn't hit crucial foul shots as the Merrimack lead reached four with under 16 seconds to play.
The Knights finished the 42nd NEC opener with 20 turnovers.
The Burgundy and Blue turnaround to face Le Moyne in the Dolphins' first-ever Northeast Conference game on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 2 p.m. ET in Hackensack, N.J. at Stratis Arena. Saturday's matchup will air live on the YES Network and stream on the YES App.
FDU men's basketball will be hosting a free postgame one-hour kids clinic for boys rising grades 2-6 and girls rising grades 2-8. Clinic participants will receive complimentary admission to the FDU-Chicago State game on Wednesday, Jan. 10. For additional information on the clinic, please contact Director of Men's Basketball Operations
Nick Battle at
n.battle@student.fdu.edu.
Tickets for Saturday's game are on-sale now at
FDUKnights.com/Tickets.
- FDU out-rebounded Merrimack 44-31
- The Knights turned the Warriors over 16 times, resulting in 13 points
- Moore's six field goal makes were second to only Derkack's (MC) seven
- FDU fell in the conference opener for the first time since the 2020-21 season
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Bogota Savings Bank is the presenting sponsor for the 2023-24 FDU men's basketball season.
