Terriers Take Fairleigh Dickinson Men’s Hoops, 86-76
Felton records career-highs of 31 points and 15 rebounds for Knights.

Box Score

Hackensack, N.J. – James Felton (Jersey City, N.J.) recorded career-highs of 31 points and 15 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as visiting St. Francis (N.Y.) defeated Fairleigh Dickinson University by a score of 86-76.  The Terriers, led by Jason Morgan’s (Willingboro, N.J.) 22 points and Bronski Dockery’s (New York, N.Y.) 21 points, improved to 13-5 overall and 10-2 in NEC play.  The Knights fell to 3-18 overall and 3-9 in the NEC.

            The Knights built their biggest lead of the game at 17-12 with 12:42 to go in the first half, using an 11-0 run over a span of 3:15.  They got baskets from five different players, including a dunk from Ryshaun Sunkins (North Brunswick, N.J.) to cap the spurt.

            St. Francis regained the lead, 21-20 with 7:03 remaining in the first frame and built the margin to 35-28 just under the two-minute mark.  The Knights then scored the final five points of the half to trim the deficit to 35-33 at the break.

            The two teams traded baskets for the first four minutes of the second half and Fairleigh Dickinson took one more lead at 41-40 with 15:58 to go.  From there the Terriers exploded with a 16-3 run to pull ahead 56-44, highlighted by five points from Dockery and four from Morgan.

            St. Francis stretched the lead to as many as 15 points with 3:25 left at 81-66.  Fairleigh Dickinson gave it one more run, this time a 10-2 spurt behind four points from T.J. Leis (Philadelphia, Pa.) to cut the Terrier lead to 83-76, but Dockery  converted 3-of-4 from the free throw line in the final 39 seconds.

            Felton connected on 11-of-18 from the field and 9-of-11 at the free throw line.  Marcus Whitaker (Trenton, N.J.) chipped in 17 points and five assists for the Knights.

            “James had a great game for us today,” said Knights’ head coach Tom Green.  “We got him the ball, he did the job and he played great defensively as well.  As a team we let them penetrate too much.  We’re getting beat by guards and we can’t give up 86 points and win like that.”

            Dockery went 7-for-11 from the field for the Terriers and Morgan hit 7-of-17 and 4-of-7 at the charity stripe.  Each nailed four three-pointers.

            The Knights return to action on Monday, February 4^th, when they host defending NEC champion Monmouth at 7:00 p.m.