DAY TWO of the First Four saw the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights book a spot in the official March Madness bracket by defeating the Texas Southern Knights to the tune of 23 points in an emphatic performance.
The two sides locked horns at UD Arena earlier on Thursday, and the Knights had control of the contest from the get go, firing early in the match to take an immediate lead on the scoreboard with some strong play.
Being completely in control of the contest coming out of half time, the Knights were able to cruise home for an 84-61 triumph, ensuring they advance to the tournament, which kicks off on Friday morning AEDT.
Fairleigh Dickinson’s victory was set up on the back of a balanced scoring performance, with the team happy to share the scoring load. All five members of the team’s starting lineup registered double-digits in the points column, an excellent display of the talent held by the Knights.
Leading the way was Ansley Almonor, with the forward having a day out in a crucial match for his team. He finished the game with a game-high 23 points on 5/11 shooting to go with eight rebounds.
Guard Joe Munden Jr. attacked the rim with ferocity (a familiar theme amongst the Knights in the win), and nailed all of his eight free throw attempts on his way to 17 points in an eye-catching performance.
Demetre Roberts was next in line on the scoring front, producing 15 points on some reasonably accurate shooting from the field (5/9 FG), while Grant Singleton (13 points) followed the same trend as his teammates and fought his way into the paint to draw contact and produce points from the charity stripe.
Sean Moore rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Knights, with the guard finishing the match with 10 points on perfect shooting, going 4/4 from the field and 1/1 from both three-point territory and the free throw line.
For the Tigers, the team could not knock the efforts of John Walker III, who fought as hard as he could to generate some offence for his side. He finished the match with 22 points, which was easily the highest total of anyone on his side.
The forward battled through some tough defence to shoot 9/17 from the field, and was a consistent source of offence for Texas Southern, despite the team struggling as a whole.
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