WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men’s basketball team fell to Army West Point, 84-70, Thursday night in what could ultimately be described as a game of runs.
While FDU showed grit, and continued to fight throughout the contest, it was ultimately two Army runs that did the Knights in.
Both teams started out shooting well early on and were tied at seven with 17:50 left to go in the first half, however, after that, the basket seemed to close for Fairleigh Dickinson as Army went on a 12-0 run to build a lead. While FDU was still within striking distance at the first media timeout, only trailing Army by four at 11-7, the Black Knights continued their run after the break to go up 19-7 with 12:51 left in the stanza.
FDU managed to trim the Army lead down to six with 4:34 left in the frame after Cameron Tweedy drained a pair of free throws, but the Black Knights responded and took a ten point, 41-31, advantage into the half.
Army came out of the locker room and built an 18-point lead after the Black Knights’ Josh Scovens made one of two free throws to make the score 69-51 with 8:23 left to play.
Fairleigh Dickinson hung tough though and fought back to within six after a Terrence Brown layup cut the Army advantage to 76-70 with 3:00 to play. The Black Knights would score the next eight points from there though as FDU began to foul in an attempt to lengthen the game.
Fairleigh Dickinson shot 39 percent compared to Army’s 45 percent from the field. Brown led the Knights in scoring with 26 points and Bismark Nsiah pulled down 10 rebounds to lead FDU. Jo’el Emanuel nearly recorded a double-double for Fairleigh Dickinson, recording 12 points and grabbing nine boards.
Montgomery native, Ryan Curry was 3-6 from behind the 3-point arc and was one of four Black Knights to finish in double digits scoring, finishing with 11 points, against FDU.
With the loss, Fairleigh Dickinson falls to 2-4 on the season, and finishes the Metro NY/NJ Classic, a round robin tournament between FDU, Army, and Manhattan, 1-1 after topping Manhattan 85-82 on Nov. 17. The Knights are in action again Friday when they host Vermont State Randolph at 11 a.m. for “Kids Day.”
