FDU Falls to Sacred Heart, 55-40

The Fairleigh Dickinson University women's basketball team dropped a 40-55 decision to the Sacred Heart Pioneers in Northeast Conference action. The Knights were not able to overcome an early deficit as a 15-point, 27-12, halftime Sacred Heart lead was stretched to as many as 22 points (39-17) with 12:10 to go in the game. FDU scored seven straight points from 4:28 until 2:51 remaining to get within 11 points (40-51) but would not score again, missing their last six shots.

Although the Knights forced 14 first-half turnovers and 22 on the night, they shot a lowly 20.3% from the field on the day and were out-rebounded 47-35. FDU pressured for a season-high 16 steals in the game.

For the fourth straight game, Karen Tiedemann (Fallston, MD/Fallston) led the Knights in scoring with a double-digit performance, this time with 12. She added five rebounds, two blocks and two assists in 34 minutes. Natallia Marchanka (Rechitsa, Belarus), last weekís NEC Rookie of the Week, scored 11 points and paced FDUís defense with six steals in 28 minutes. Betsy Blom (Forest Hill, MD/C. Milton Wright) grabbed a team-high seven rebounds in just 18 minutes.

The Sacred Heart Pioneers improve to 8-8 on the season, 5-2 in the NEC. FDU falls to 4-12 overall and 3-4 in the NEC. The Knights next host Robert Morris on Thursday, January 25^th for a 7:00pm game.