HACKENSACK, N.J. – FDU men's basketball couldn't finish-off the late comeback Thursday as Wagner grinded-out a 66-62 victory inside the Bogota Savings Bank Center. FDU closed-in on the Seahawks' game-high 11-point lead in the final six minutes of the game with eight points from sophomore forward
Jo'el Emanuel (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) and five from junior forward
Ansley Almonor (Spring Valley, N.Y./St. Joseph Regional [Mont.] in the comeback effort.
The Burgundy and Blue would tie the game three times in the early minutes of the second half, but the Knights did not gain a lead in the final 20 minutes of play.
Wagner's Tahron Allen led all scorers with 22 points –– his season high. Allen hit 3-of-4 from behind the arc with four assists in 26 minutes. Melvin Council Jr. and Julius Brown also contributed double-figure scoring for the Seahawks with 10 and 15 points, respectively.
Emanuel was FDU's leading scorer for the fourth time this season, finishing his night with 16 points. 12 of his points came in the second half. Almonor sank three more triples for a grand total of 157 career threes as the third-year Knight closes-in on sixth all-time at FDU in made triples. Senior guard
Joe Munden Jr. (Harlem, N.Y./Monsignor Scanlan) nabbed a season-high eight rebounds for the second time in three games.
FDU shot 18.8 percent from three-point distance, the Knights' lowest in NEC play this season.
"Lackluster energy from the beginning," said FDU head coach
Jack Castleberry after the game. "It's a tough game, man. This is conference play; every win is hard. We need to be ready to play every single night. As a group, we need to be more mature.
"We executed down the stretch and did show signs of energy in those final 11 minutes, unfortunately it's a 40-minute basketball game and we just need to figure it out."
FDU, winners of six of its last seven, falls to 11-13 overall and 5-4 in the Northeast Conference while Wagner improves to 2-1 in its last three and evens its overall record to 11-11 and league record to 5-5.
The Knights visit conference leader Central Connecticut on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 1 p.m. ET on the YES Network, the YES App and ESPN+. The Blue Devils edged past Sacred Heart Thursday in the Nutmeg State rivalry series.
- Two of FDU's four conference losses have been by four-point margins (2/8/24 vs. Wagner; 1/4/24 at Merrimack)
- Brayden Reynolds and Heru Bligen provided all 15 of the Knights' bench points, shooting 6-9 FG
- Reynolds had a big-time steal and flush with 5:33 to play in the first half, bringing FDU within a bucket (17-15)
- Terrence Brown was able to draw an offensive foul multiple times as he'd be the beneficiary of six whistles against Wagner
- Sean Moore made his 60th appearance as a Knight (two seasons)
- Almonor has sank at least three triples in each of his last three games
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Bogota Savings Bank is the presenting sponsor for the 2023-24 FDU men's basketball season.
