Robert Morris Holds Off Knights, 65-61
FDU rally from 23-point deficit falls short.

Box Score

The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team came-back from a 23-point deficit, but the rally fell short as the Knights were defeated at Robert Morris 65-61, on Thursday.  The Knights fell to 4-21 overall and 4-12 in NEC play, while the Colonials improved to 10-15 overall and 9-7 in the NEC.

The Colonials nailed nine three-pointers and raced out to a 43-22 lead at halftime. Then came the Knights' furious second half rally. After forward Aaron Thomas nailed a jumper to give RMU a 45-22 lead and its largest lead of the game at 23 points, the Knights began to chip away at the deficit.

A 21-7 FDU run in the next 10 minutes of action whittled the Colonial lead down to nine, 52-43, with 9:15 left in the game. The Colonials built their lead back to double digits at 58-45, but another 15-0 outburst by the Knights, capped by a steal and a dunk by Ryshaun Sunkins, gave FDU its first lead of the contest at 60-58 with 1:43 to go.

The Colonials regrouped, and Aaron Thomas drained a three-pointer with 1:27 left to give the Colonials the lead for good. Forward Tyler Bacon added a layup and a dunk with three seconds left to help seal the win.

"We challenged the kids to start playing better defense at the half," said Knights head coach Tom Green. "We dug in in the second half and made a game of it. At the end we gave Thomas an open shot and couldn't sustain it."

James Felton led the Knights charge in the second half, scoring 20 of his game-high 25 points and also grabbed eight rebounds.  Sunkins scored a career-high 15 points, hitting 7-of-13 from the field.  Matt Hammond pitched in 14 points and eight rebounds for the Knights.

Fairleigh Dickinson returns to action on Saturday, February 16th, at St. Francis (PA).