Bethlehem, PA (December 30) - The FDU Men's Basketball team defeated Baruch, 84-79 for third place in the Moravian Steel Club Classic Tournament this weekend!
The Devils were led by Jaqwan Washington (Bryan, TX) who earned FDU 17 points and was named to the All-Tournament Team for his efforts. Following Washington was Carson Woods (Phoenix, AZ.) scoring 14 points and Mac Creek (Louisville, KY.) with 12. Christopher Smith (Florham Park, NJ) totaled a game-high of 12 rebounds to help bring the Devils to victory.
Brauch opened the first half with a 10-6 run against FDU and led the half until the 11:00 minute mark when Noah Pagan (Ringwood, NJ) contributed a layup and a pair of free throws that brought the score to 14-11. The Bearcats and the Devils went basket for basket fighting to maintain the lead. FDU was up 3-points with 3:02 left on the clock but Baruch was able to even the score to 31-31 with less than a minute remaining. Devils 3-pointers from Woods, Ethan Klueh (Orlando, FL.) and Ryan Merz (Buffalo, NY) closed out the half and a made jumper by Pagan brought the score to 34-33, a 1-point Baruch lead.
In the second half, the Bearcats opened with a 9-point unanswered run which was broken up by a made layup from Woods at the 18:32 minute mark. The Devils fell into a 10-point deficit, as the Bearcats continued to press offensively tailing a score of 60-50 with 11:36 remaining on the clock. Points from Smith, Creek, and Adam Ziegler (West Grove, PA) helped the Devils catch up to tie the Bearcats 64-64 at the 8:02 time stamp. The remainder of the game was neck and neck, but Washington brought the Devils up 4 points with less than 5 minutes left of game play. FDU was able to maintain their lead and grow the point differential against Baruch, ending with a Devils victory of 84-79.
As a team, FDU-Florham shot 45.1 percent (32-71) from the floor, 26.1 percent (6-23) from three-point range, and 82.4 percent (14-17) from the free throw line. They totaled 48 points in the paint, 29 off the bench, and 11 off turnovers.
Baruch shot 49.2 percent (30-61) from the floor, 27.8 percent (5-18) from three-point range, and 53.8 percent (14-26) from the free throw line. They totaled 40 points in the paint, 25 off the bench, and 8 off turnovers.
FDU-Florham will return to play at home on Wednesday, January 8th against King's (PA). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
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