Fairleigh Dickinson Men’s Basketball Tops Quinnipiac, 89-82
Knights Take Braves behind Felton’s 23, Mattox’s 18.

Box Score

Hackensack, N.J. – Senior center James Felton (Jersey City, N.J.) led four Knights in double-digits with 23 points to help Fairleigh Dickinson to an 89-82 win at home over Quinnipiac.  The Knights stopped a four-game losing streak with the win and improved to 4-20 overall and 4-11 in NEC play.  Quinnipiac fell to 8-14 overall and 6-9 in the NEC.

            Fairleigh Dickinson held a 44-38 advantage at the break.  Quinnipiac had built at 25-15 lead over the first nine minutes of the contest after Jeremy Bishop (Cohoes, N.Y.) netted nine of his 16 points.  The Knights quickly answered with a 19-2 outburst over the next 6:48 to take a 34-27 lead. Felton took charge with 10 points during the spurt and Iman Mattox (Hayward, Calif.) chipped in eight of his 18 points off the bench and never trailed again.

            The Knights added to the margin in the second half, building it to as many as 16 points at 64-48 with 11:41 to go as they stayed hot from the field at 50 percent in both halves.  Quinnipiac managed to cut the deficit to five points at 87-82, but Mensah Peterson (North Brunswick, N.J.), who gave the Knights 16 points off the bench, sealed the win with a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining.

            “Defensively we played much better tonight,” said Knights’ head coach Tom Green.  “The big difference is that we shot the ball well also.  We gave James a little help tonight and every time it looked like Quinnipiac was getting in a rhythm, we’d change up defenses from man to zone, or zone to man.”

            Felton connected on 9-of-18 from the field, including a pair of three-pointers and went 3-for-3 at the free-throw line. Mattox drained 6-of-10 from the field and added four rebounds.

            Four players also recorded double-digits for Quinnipiac.  Along with Bishop, who also grabbed 10 rebounds to go with his six points, Rashaun Banjo (Far Rockaway, N.Y.) scored a team-high 20 points, while Bill Romano (Wethersfield, Conn.) added 19 and Rob Monroe (Lanham, Md.) scored 13 points.

            The Knights will hit the road for their next two contests as they travel to western Pennsylvania to take on Robert Morris on February 14^th and St. Francis (PA) on February 16^th.