Madison, NJ (January 18, 2020)- Men's Basketball fell to King's College in a Middle Atlantic Freedom Conference matchup at home on Saturday, 85-59. With the loss, FDU falls to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in conference play while the Monarchs improve to 10-5 overall and 1-3 in conference play.

FIRST HALF
The Devils got the scoring started with buckets from senior Kenneth LaRocca and junior Oliver Ortman. After a King's jumper to make the game 4-2, senior Andy Fleurantin would knock down a three-pointer off a pass from Ortman to extend the FDU lead to five. The Monarchs had the response, scoring 5 of the games next seven points to tie it up n9-9 at the 15:42 mark. Over the next eight minutes, each team would hold the lead twice and score 16 points in route to a 25-25 score with 7:48 remaining in the half. King's would go on a seven-zero run to grab their largest lead of the half, before freshman Joseph Nigro knocked down a jumper off a pass from LaRocca. 50 seconds later if was Nigro again, this time dishing an assist to freshman Andrew Schulz who knocked down a triple for FDU and cut the King's lead to two, with 3:00 minutes on the clock. A five-one run closed out the first half for the Monarchs who took a 37-31 lead into the halftime break.

SECOND HALF
King's College would extend their lead to nine early in the second half, but FDU continued to battle as LaRocca knocked down a three at the 16:47 mark to bring the Devils back within six. Another Monarch 7-0 run extended the lead to as much as 13 before LaRocca hit again from beyond the arc, this time on a pass from Ortman. It was LaRocca again one-minute later as he received a pass from Schulz and drained another three cutting the Monarch lead to seven, 47-40. King's brought the lead back up to 11 before Fleurantin stopped the run with a three-pointer of his own thanks to a feed from freshman Derrick Whitaker. FDU was unable to cut into the King's lead down the stretch, as the Monarch finished outscoring the Devils 31-16 over the games final ten minutes.

LEAD DEVIL
Coming off a career high in points Wednesday night, Kenny LaRocca led all Devils in scoring with 15 points on 5-of-12 (42%) from the field and 4-of-9 (44%) from beyond the arc. He also added a team high seven assists and five rebounds on the day.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY
With 14 points, Ortman has now scored double-digit points in every game this season for the Devils. His teammate Fleuantin also finished with 14 points which marks the 13^th game this season he has finished with double-digit points.
 
FROM COACH
"Never fun to get run out of the gym in your own building, but credit to King's who made us pay for our defensive mistakes and kept us off balance on offense. We need to figure out which team we want to be-the team who does what we do because it's what we do or the team who does it only when shots are falling."- Head Coach Jeff Slanovec

UP NEXT
FDU returns to action when they travel to Delaware Valley University on Wednesday, January 22 for 6:00 p.m. tip.