After picking up their first NEC win of the season on Thursday, the Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team welcomed Centenary to Hackensack for their final non-conference game. As they move into full-on Northeast Conference play following Saturday's game, the Knights needed to use this game to iron out any wrinkles ahead into the rough and tough conference slate.
The Knights ended their non-conference portion of the schedule with a 99-50 win over Centenary on New Year's Eve at the Rothman Center.
Fairleigh Dickinson started the game by settling for threes, with many of their early shots not going down. As the first few minutes of the half ticked away, led by Ansley Almonor, the Knights began to drain threes en route to an 11-6 lead at the first media timeout. FDU head coach Tobin Anderson used the timeout to sub out an entirely new lineup into the game. The lineup change affected Ceteneary as FDU forced multiple turnovers over almost three minutes of play.
The Cyclones went almost four minutes without scoring a point against the Knights' swarming full-court press as they had trouble getting the ball across the timeline. Fairleigh Dickinson used their defense to turn into offense as they went on an 11-2 run to extend their lead 22-8 after a driving layup from Joe Munden Jr.
FDU finished the half on a 37-9 run, as it seemed like every shot the Knights put up went in. The Knights had three players scoring in double-digits in the opening half, led by Demetre Roberts, who scored 13 points and handed out five assists. The more impressive stat was the 19 turnovers FDU forced as Centenary could not get any offensive momentum in the first half as FDU held a 61-21 lead.
The second half was the same for Fairleigh Dickinson as they continued to score at will against the Cyclones. Anderson rotated players in and out of the game, including bench players like Pier-Olivier Racine and Daniel Rodriguez, who had each seen the floor for 12 minutes before Saturday's game.
Centenary made their first trey of the game with 10:27 left after starting the game 0-for-8 from beyond the arc. The Cyclones played better in the second half, but the deficit was too large as FDU continued their dominance on the boards and defensively. In the end, the size and shot-making ability of FDU were too much for the Cyclones.
Almonor led the way with 17 points for FDU, while Trevon Blassingame scored 14 points off the bench. Sebastien Lamaute finished with ten points and ten rebounds. The Knights forced 27 turnovers in the game, which led to 32 points, and hit a season-high 14 threes.
Isaac Poueriet led Centenary with 17 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
Fairleigh Dickinson Hits The Road
Fairleigh Dickinson continues NEC play when they travel to New York to face St. Francis Brooklyn on Thursday at 1 p.m.
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