MADISON, N.J. (February 8, 2017) – The FDU men's basketball team dropped a 77-65 Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom matchup to Eastern Wednesday night.

The Devils fall to 6-16, 3-8 in the conference, while Eastern moved to 14-8, 9-2 in the MAC Freedom.

Through the 10 minutes and change, neither side was able to grab more than a three-point lead. The visitors broke the streak, as consecutive jumpers by Abraham Kurnick put the Eagles up five with 8:32 left in the opening half. After sophomore Anthony Mitchell hit a layup, both sides went scoreless for almost four minutes, and a three-point play by Shaquan Turk gave Eastern an eight-point lead.

Freshman Rajaan Dixon scored 12 straight points in the final 3:16 of the opening stanza, cutting the eight-point gap down to a single tally heading into the halftime break. Dixon led all scorers in the opening half with his 12 tallies, while sophomore Darren Davy and Mitchell had five in the opening 20.

FDU scored seven of the first 10 points beginning the second half, and a layup by senior Donte Ali stretched the lead to three with 14:25 left. A Mitchell layup with 10:20 to go evened the score at 54, but Eastern reeled off a game-swinging 17-4 run that put the game out of reach. Sophomore Derek Leohner hit a layup with 2:24 to trim the gap to 10, but that would be all the scoring FDU would get.

Mitchell led FDU with 15 points and three assists to lead four players in double-figures, while Ali had 11 points and seven rebounds. Senior James Moran snared eight rebounds off the bench in the losing effort.

The Devils hit the road for two straight beginning Saturday when they go to Delaware Valley for a 3 p.m. contest.