NEW BRITAIN, Conn. - #4 FDU's (13-20, 8-8) season ended in a 76-72 overtime loss to #1 Central Connecticut (25-6, 14-2) in the NEC semifinal on Saturday afternoon. Jo'el Emanuel led the Knights with a hard-fought 17 points.

It was an incredible effort from the Knights, who trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half. The Blue Devils knocked down nine triples in the first half and led 41-24 at halftime.

With 13:46 to play, FDU was still trailing by 18. From there, they slowly chipped away. Jameel Morris scored four points in a 5-0 spurt that cut the lead down to 13. A tip-in from Bismark Nsiah pulled the Knights within nine about three minutes later.

Trailing 57-48 with just over six minutes to play, FDU got the sequence they needed to seize momentum. Terrence Brown knocked down two free throws, the Knights forced a turnover on the next possession, and then Nsiah connected in the paint to cut the CCSU lead to five.

CCSU went back up by eight, but another Nsiah second-chance bucket forced them into a timeout with 3:03 remaining. Out of the timeout, Emanuel and Morris hit threes on back-to-back possessions. This made it a two-point game.

FDU got the ball back trailing by two with 35 seconds left. Brown drove right and hit a baseline jumper to tie things at 66-66. CCSU's shot at the buzzer rimmed out and the game went to overtime.

The Blue Devils shot eight free throws in overtime and survived FDU's valiant comeback effort.

Nsiah finished the game with 15 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Four of these rebounds came on the offensive end. As a team, FDU scored 14 second-chance points.

A number of these second-chance points came thanks to Emanuel, who found four offensive boards of his own. Emanuel's most emphatic points came via an electric putback slam in the overtime period. He played 43 of 45 minutes. Jameel Morris also played 43 minutes and contributed 12 points in his second start of the season. Read Full Article