SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Ansley Almonor (Spring Valley, N.Y./St. Joseph Regional [Mont.]) led all scorers Saturday with a career-high 30 points as the junior forward and FDU men's basketball defeated Le Moyne on the road 68-58. The Knights, in third place in the Northeast Conference, move to 14-15 overall and 8-6 in league play.

FDU held the lead most of the afternoon, though the Dolphins adjusted after the halftime intermission to move in front sporadically in the second half.

"Listen, you're playing on the road against a team that really dynamic offensively," commented FDU head coach Jack Castleberry following the game. "Of course we were concerned about what they're [Le Moyne] going to do and what they're capable of. Le Moyne has guys who can get high quick and they [Le Moyne] run good stuff. Coach Nate Champion does a great job. We're really happy to leave here with a 'W.' We got great numbers from Ansley [Almonor] and Joe [Munden Jr.] and those guys were dynamic. We had a few guys who contributed to this win today, TB [Terrence Brown] had seven rebounds and Jo'el Emanuel had six. We did a lot of things positive across the board.

Castleberry concluded, "The numbers don't reflect it but we played really unselfish basketball today."

The three-point ball was kind to FDU as the Knights shot 40 percent from distance in the first 20 minutes and nearly again in the second, finishing 38.5 percent from downtown. Almonor, among the Knights' all-time top three-point shooters, made 6-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Besides Almonor, the only other Knight to reach double-figures was senior guard Joe Munden Jr. (Harlem, N.Y./Monsignor Scanlan) who finished his outing with 19 points. 10 of Almonor's 30 came in the final five minutes of the game.

FDU was plus-one on the glass, out-rebounded Le Moyne 41-40 with freshman Terrence Brown (Minneapolis, Minn./Columbia Heights) and senior Sean Moore (Columbus, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) leading the charge at seven each.

Kaiyem Cleary led all Dolphins with a double-double, finishing with 18 points and 14 rebounds.

FDU turned Le Moyne over 13 times in a game with 68 possessions.

As conference play comes to a close next week, FDU turns its attention to Thursday's matchup with Merrimack on Senior Night as the Warriors visit the Bogota Savings Bank Center on Thursday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. ET on NEC Front Row and the NEC on the Run app. FDU closes-out the regular season on Saturday, March 2 at Wagner.

The 2024 Northeast Conference Championship commences on March 6 with the quarterfinal round at campus sites. Stay tuned to FDUKnights.com and NortheastConference.org for the latest bracket and ticketing information.

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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