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HISTORIC GARDEN STATE SWEEP FOR HERENDA, FDU
 
“I took the job May 1 and had six players in the program with no staff.  We just had hungry players and I told them if they work hard they will win a championship some day.  This wasn’t a championship today, but I thought it was a championship effort.  I’m just proud of my guys and thankful.”
 
That was FDU head coach Greg Herenda after the Knights went into the RAC last Tuesday and earned the first signature win of his short tenure, a 73-72 conquest of Rutgers in the NIT Season Tipoff.
 
After going ahead by as much as nine in the second half, FDU finally relinquished the lead with three minutes to play, and with three frontcourt players having fouled out, trailed by one in possession of the ball with under a minute to play.  In stepped freshman guard Matt MacDonald (Buffalo, NY/Canisius), who calmly sank a 25-foot three-pointer with 26 seconds on the clock to give FDU a 71-69 edge.  After Rutgers missed a shot, junior guard Mustafaa Jones (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann Goretti) hit a transition layup with three seconds to play to ice the game for the Knights.
 
“We wanted to open up the floor and let Sid(ney Sanders Jr.) go,” said Herenda.  “In college basketball, players make plays.  Sid drove it in and Matt (MacDonald) opened up deep.  Matt joined us in August after having no scholarship offers.  The kid shoots so many shots in practice and it paid off for him tonight.”
 
The victory for the Knights over Rutgers was only their second in the series (out of 11 games), and first since December 1, 1993 when FDU won a 56-53 nailbiter when the Scarlet Knights were still a member of the A-10.
 
“This win justifies what we have been doing since August,” said Herenda.  These kids have worked hard.  We played at Arizona and versus (DII No. 1) Metro (State) - a tough schedule so far.  This validates what we do in practice every day and shows them we can win games on the road in a tough environment.  I’m hard on my guys, coach them tough but I respect them and love them.  They deserve the fruits and to have a happy Thanksgiving.”
 
Senior guard Sidney Sanders, Jr. (Charleston, SC/Burke (Polk State)) recorded his first double-double, matching career-highs with 22 points and 10 assists.  Jones hit 5-9 from outside the arc to score a career-best 21 points, and MacDonald added a personal-best 14 points on 4-8 shooting from long range.
 
And just when you thought things couldn’t get any better for Herenda and Co., the Knights waltzed in to the Prudential Center on Sunday and knocked off Big East foe Seton Hall, 58-54, completing the historic two-game sweep of New Jersey rivals.
 
The Knights once again received a masterful performance from Sanders, who torched the Pirates to the tune of 23 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists in a near triple-double effort.  He was named Choice Hotels/NEC Player of the Week for his two outstanding performances as well as Lou Henson National Player of the Week honors.
 
“Sid Sanders is playing as well as anyone I’ve been around in a long time,” Herenda said.  “On top of that, Scooter (Gillette) played like a Big East player today, and Mathias (Seilund) made two huge three’s that basically won the game for us.  It truly was a team effort for us today.”
 
Sanders dished to senior forward Mathias Seilund (Dragoer, Denmark/Falkonergaardens Gymnasium) for a three-pointer that gave the Knights a 55-51 edge with 2:15 to play and hit a pair of free throws with 20 seconds on the clock to keep FDU ahead by three.  He then pulled down a huge offensive rebound off a missed free throw with five seconds to play and made the key shot from the charity stripe to keep it a two possession game.
 
“We defended really, really well tonight, and we rebounded the ball,” Herenda said.  “If we continue to do those things, we will continue to win games.  To beat both Rutgers and Seton Hall back-to-back is just huge for our program.  Our guys now believe in themselves and how we are playing.  It’s great to see.  I am so happy for each and every guy that put on a blue jersey.”
 
FDU has now beaten Seton Hall in two of their last three meetings.  The Knights last beat the Pirates, 76-71, on November 18, 2006.
 
As expected, social media was buzzing after each of FDU’s landmark wins.
 
Ken Pomeroy @kenpomeroy
I don’t follow the Fairleigh Dickinson program like I should. Assume I missed Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker transferring there last week.
 
Nelson Castillo @NelCastBHJ
Congrats to FDU in beating Rutgers on the road tonight. That is a big win for that program at this stage of their rebuilding. #NECMBB
 
Nick DiPillo @NickDiPillo
Shout out to my alma mater. Great win at Rutgers! FDU stand up!!! @GotGame_Eds @BedrocksBest10 @MikePeeps_313 @CoachTinyGreen
 
John Templon @nybuckets
Congrats to @ZakBoisvert and @CoachBruceHam on helping FDU to a great win for the program tonight over Rutgers.
 
Mike Vaccaro @MikeVacc
Thrilled for Matt MacDonald (@mattmac_3) who hit the biggest shot of the night & his young career in Fairleigh Dickinson’s W vs Rutgers.
 
Bruce Hamburger @CoachBruceHam
Great team win for our program tonight. Nice for our players to see their hard work validated. @FDUKnights
 
Brendan Prunty @BrendanPrunty
Seton Hall and Rutgers will play next Sunday night in the consolation game of the FDU Invitational.
 
Kevin Driscoll @_KevinDriscoll
Watching @FDUKnights vs @SetonHallMBB The kid Sidney Sanders is an absolute beast @FOXSports1
 
Bill Herenda @billherenda
Proud but not surprised by @FDUKnights, Brother Greg, staff & players on 2 game W streak over Rutgers & Seton Hall http://ow.ly/i/3Tgmi
 
Vin Parise @VinParise
Safe to say this is a week that @FDUKnights & new coach Greg Herenda will remember for a long time.....
 
MCC @MCCBlueColts
@CoachBruceHam @FDUKnights This is the result of teamwork and great play. What an Iconic week for the program. #PRIDEINJHOOPS
 
Looking at the bigger picture, the wins marked the first by an NEC school over an AAC team and first over a Big East opponent since Wagner beat Pitt back in 2011.  They also come less than three weeks after St. Francis Brooklyn knocked off an ACC opponent in Miami.  NEC teams have also gone down to the wire with a number of major conference teams this year as LIU fell to Indiana (73-72), Syracuse edged St. Francis Brooklyn (56-50) and Boston College beat Sacred Heart (75-67) in overtime last week.
 
NOTABLE NEC VICTORIES AGAINST BCS CONFERENCES
Fairleigh Dickinson 58, Seton Hall 54 (12/1/13)
Fairleigh Dickinson 73, Rutgers 72 (11/25/13)
St. Francis Brooklyn 66, Miami 62 (OT) (11/8/13)
Robert Morris 59, Kentucky 57 (3/19/13)
Bryant 56, Boston College 54 (11/25/12)
Wagner 59, #15 Pittsburgh 54 (12/23/11)
Robert Morris 57, Boston College 51 (1/7/08)
Fairleigh Dickinson 76, Seton Hall 71 (11/18/06)
St. Francis Brooklyn 53, St. John’s 52 (11/23/04)
Monmouth 81, Vanderbilt 67 (11/24/01)
CCSU 54, Providence 50 (12/21/99)
Long Island 76, St. John’s 73 (11/23/96)
Mount St. Mary’s 71, #21 Georgia Tech 69 (12/18/95)
Wagner 80, Rutgers 78 (12/16/95)
Fairleigh Dickinson 55, Providence 53 (12/19/84)
Long Island 72, Providence 65 (12/23/83)
Wagner 84, Duke 77 (1/5/83)
 
BUZZER BEATERS FOR THE GOOD GUYS
As Fairleigh Dickinson was preparing to knock off it’s second straight major conference opponent on Sunday afternoon, a pair of buzzer-beating finishes were unfolding involving the NEC’s two Brooklyn-based programs.
 
At the Steinberg Wellness Center, LIU Brooklyn was rallying from six down with under two minutes to play against Norfolk State.  After junior forward Landon Atterberry (Detroit, MI/Southfield (Cape Fear CC)) tied the game at 72 all on a layup with 20 seconds to play, the wheels were in motion for the final sequence.  Following a Norfolk timeout, junior swingman Troy Joseph (Toronto, Ontario/Pickering) made a terrific block with seven seconds on the clock, and sophomore forward EJ Reed (Dallas, TX/Mesquite) sent an outlet pass to senior guard Jason Brickman (San Antonio, TX/Clark).  Brickman raced the ball up court and with his 14th assist of the game, found junior guard Gerrell Martin (Bronx, NY/Wings Academy) with a bounce pass for a layup at the buzzer and 74-72 win for the Blackbirds.

“That’s the way we drew it up,” LIU Brooklyn head coach Jack Perri joked after the win.  “When the money was down we got the defensive stop that we needed.  We went back to man-to-man late and our guys showed some resiliency.  It was a hell of a defensive stop and then obviously you get the runout and the play was awesome.”
 
See video of the game-winner here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcIWrbR5sPA
 
A few minutes later on Long Island, St. Francis Brooklyn’s dynamic freshman Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, NY/South Shore) once again answered the call for the Terriers.  It started when junior forward Jalen Cannon’s (Allentown, PA/William Allen) three-pointer with 40 seconds remaining capped a 7-0 run and gave SFBK a 68-66 advantage over Stony Brook, the defending America East regular season champion who was picked second in the 2013-14 preseason poll.  After the Seawolves knotted the game at 68-68 with 19 ticks left on the clock, Martin swooped in to tip-in Sheldon Hagigal’s (Westbury, NY/West Oaks Academy (FL)) layup attempt with 1.5 seconds remaining for the 70-68 triumph that snapped SBU’s 13-game home win streak.  Martin was subsequently named Choice Hotels/NEC Rookie of the Week for the second time this season.
 
“Today we beat one of the best mid-major programs in the country,” said St. Francis Brooklyn head coach Glenn Braica.  “They {Stony Brook) are a class act, play the right way and are a terrific team. I’m very happy with how our guys responded.  We had the lead, lost it and then showed a lot of heart by staying with it and coming up with the win.”
 
LIU’S BRICKMAN WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF NEC ASSIST MARK
At this rate, LIU Brooklyn senior guard Jason Brickman (San Antonio, TX/Clark) could be just a couple games away from breaking one of the NEC’s longest-standing individual records.  With 14 assists in a 74-72 win over Norfolk State on Sunday, Brickman lifted his lifetime total to 781 dimes and is just 24 shy of surpassing Marist’s Drafton Davis, who racked up an all-time best 804 from 1984-88.  Prior to Brickman, no NEC player had come within 200 assists of the mark Davis set 25 years ago.
 
Brickman is the leading active distributor in DI and needs 42 dimes to enter the top-25 all-time in NCAA history.  Looking ahead, Brickman also has a realistic chance of joining Duke’s Bobby Hurley (1,076), NC State’s Chris Corchiani (1,038) and UNC’s Ed Cota (1,030) as the only players in the history of DI college hoops to end their careers with 1,000 assists.
 
Brickman led the nation last season with 8.5 apg, and is again on top of the national leaderboard in 2013-14 with 10.3 apg.  His two games of 14 assists this season tie for the most by an NCAA player this season against a DI opponent.
 
DID YOU KNOW?
There have been 27 times over the last 10 years that a player has dished for at least 14 assists while committing one or less turnovers.  LIU Brooklyn senior guard Jason Brickman (San Antonio, TX/Clark) joined that group on Saturday with a 14-assist, one-turnover performance in a 74-72 win over Norfolk State.
 
WHACK TO THE RESCUE IN BIG MOUNT WIN
Mount St. Mary’s senior guard Rashad Whack (Hyattsville, MD/Bishop McNamara) came through in a big way for Mount last Tuesday in a 69-64 win over Patriot League power Bucknell.  The Hyattsville, MD native dropped a season-high 22 points, and after his acrobatic lefty runner with 2:29 to play gave the Mount an eight-point cushion, he hit four free throws down the stretch to seal things.  Whack followed with 10 points, six rebounds and a pair of steals at Michigan State, and averaged 16.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.0 apg and 1.5 spg for the week.
 
TERRIER NAILBITERS
St. Francis Brooklyn is off to a 5-3 start, but haven’t made it easy for its fans in the process.  Four of Terriers’ five wins have come down to the final seconds. Opponents have missed a potential game-tying or game-winning three-pointer in all of those wins (Miami, Florida Atlantic, Oakland, Stony Brook), including a 40-footer by Stony Brook on Sunday that rimmed out at the buzzer.
 
HIGH FIVE FOR MOUNT’S MILLER
When a player signs to play for a DI school, these are the moments he dreams about.  Out on the floor against the nation’s top-ranked team last Friday, Mount St. Mary’s freshman forward Will Miller (Dallas, TX/Highland Park) found the national stage to his liking in a game televised coast-to-coast on Big Ten Network.  In just his eighth career game, Miller broke out in a big way, hitting five three-pointers in the first half against Michigan State, keeping the Mount within five points late in the first half.  He finished with a team and career-high 15 points to lift his season average to 6.8 ppg.  He leads Mount St. Mary’s with 16 three-pointers and ranks eighth in the NEC with 2.0 trifectas per outing.
 
STELLAR NUMBERS FOR CCSU’S VINALES
In the “stellar games” category, CCSU junior guard Kyle Vinales (Detroit, MI/Phelps School) is at the top of the list.  Vinales has racked up 31 games of 20+ points over the course of his career, four more than Bryant senior forward Alex Francis (Harlem, NY/Holderness Prep (NH)).  Vinales has also tallied eight games of 30+ points, also a league-leading mark among active players.  This season, Bryant junior guard Dyami Starks (Duluth, MN/Duluth East) has already hit the 30-point mark on three occasions.
 
NEC Active Leaders: 20 Point Games
Kyle Vinales, CCSU          31
Alex Francis, BRY           27
Julian Boyd, LIU            20
Latif Rivers, WC            16
Dyami Starks, BRY           15
Julian Norfleet, MSM        12
Karvel Anderson, RMU        9
Jalen Cannon, SFBK          9
Louis Montes, SHU           9
Ben Mockford, SFBK          7
Rashad Whack, MSM           7
 
NEC Active Leaders: 30 Point Games
Kyle Vinales, CCSU          8
Dyami Starks, BRY           3
Alex Francis, BRY           2
 
BRYANT’S FRANCIS CRACKS NEC TOP-50
Bryant senior forward Alex Francis (Harlem, NY/Holderness Prep) last week cracked the top-50 on the NEC career scoring list and enters play this week with 1,599 points, tops among active players in the conference and 44th all-time.  Francis, who also ranks 23rd on the league’s all-time rebounding list with 770, is one of 13 players in NEC history to reach 1,500 points and 750 boards in his career.  The New York City product is currently on pace to become the first player in conference history to finish with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. 
 
Last week, he matched a season-high 22 points in a 70-67 win over Brown on Wednesday and currently ranks in the NEC top-10 in scoring (15.6, seventh), rebounding (6.0, sixth), field goal percentage (.638, 1st) and blocks (1.43, fifth).
 
NEC NOTABLES

• Bryant freshman forward Dan Garvin (Bethel, CT/Bethel) recorded the first double-double of his career with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds in a 70-67 win over intrastate rival Brown on Wednesday.  He then matched his career-high with 13 points against Salve Regina on Saturday.  He averaged 11.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg and shot 52.9 percent for the week.
 
• CCSU picked up its first win of the season on Tuesday behind 29 points from junior guard Kyle Vinales (Detroit, MI/Phelps School).  Vinales made 6-11 shots from the floor and sealed the win from the line, making nine straight in the last minute in a 74-71 victory at NJIT.
 
• CCSU junior forward Faronte Drakeford (Wilmington, NC/Pinecrest (Cape Fear CC)) scored a career-high 22 points in a 72-61 loss at Brown on Saturday.  He made 11-17 from the field while also grabbing six rebounds.
 
• FDU junior Mustafaa Jones (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann-Goretti) had a career night in the victory over Rutgers after scoring a career-high 21 points and grabbing a career-best eight rebounds in 38 minutes of action. He also knocked down 5-9 from three-point range and his layup with three seconds left proved to be the game-winning bucket for the Knights
 
• Robert Morris senior guard Karvel Anderson (Elkhart, IN/Elkhart Memorial (Glen Oaks CC)) averaged 18.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.0 spg and 1.5 bpg last week, including a season-high 25 points against Delaware.  Anderson has reached double figures in scoring in each of RMU’s first eight games of the 2013-14 campaign and has scored at least 20 points in four tilts.  He ranks third in the NEC with 18.1 ppg and leads the conference with 3.38 three-pointers per outing.
 
• Sacred Heart junior guards Steve Glowiak (New Britain, CT/New Britain) and Chris Evans (Stamford, CT/Stamford (Taft School)) each averaged 16.0 ppg last week.  Glowiak also pulled down 4.5 rpg and dished for 3.5 apg, while shooting 55.0 percent from the field and 53.8 percent (7-13) from outside the arc.  Evans hit at a 55.3 percent clip from the floor and made 82.4 percent (14-17) from the line.  Evans had 18 and Glowiak 15 in a near-upset of Boston College on Tuesday as the Pioneers fell 75-67 in overtime.
 
• St. Francis Brooklyn junior forward Jalen Cannon (Allentown, PA/William Allen) averaged 19.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and shot 65.0 percent from the field last week.  He scored a game and season-high 23 points in SFBK’s 70-68 win at Stony Brook on Sunday.  In the win, he hit 3-3 from three-point range, including a trifecta with 40 seconds left that gave the Terriers a 68-66 lead.  Cannon currently ranks sixth in the NEC in scoring (16.4), second in rebounding (8.1) and third in field goal percentage (.545).

NEC NUMBERS

Bryant’s bench scored 61 of the team’s 82 points in a win over Salve Regina on Saturday.
 
CCSU scored its final 19 points from the line in a 74-71 win at NJIT on Tuesday.
 
CCSU junior guard Kyle Vinales (Detroit, MI/Phelps School) scored 42 points last week to push his career total to 1,279, good for 19th place on the CCSU all-time list. He jumped three spots, including passing former All-NEC player Obie Nwadike (1,265). Up next is Jim Muraski (1,291) as Vinales is only 35 points from becoming the 18th player in school history to reach 1,300 career points.
 
In FDU’s victory over Seton Hall, the Knights won the rebounding battle for the first time all season after holding a 33-29 edge on the glass.
 
LIU Brooklyn has won 39 of its last 41 games at the Steinberg Wellness Center following a last-second, 74-72, win over Norfolk State on Sunday.
 
LIU Brooklyn’s win over Norfolk State marked the first time the Blackbirds have had 20+ assists while committing fewer than 10 turnovers since a 93-73 win in the NEC Tournament semifinals over the Mount on Feb. 27, 1998.
 
Mount St. Mary’s has twice faced the #1 team in the nation.  The Mount took on Michigan State last week and also went up against North Carolina in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
 
Sacred Heart junior guard Phil Gaetano has entered the top-50 on the NEC career assist list.  With 382 career dimes he ranks 46th all-time.
 
St. Francis Brooklyn stopped Stony Brook’s 13-game home winning streak at Pritchard Gymnasium with a 70-68 win on Sunday.
 
St. Francis Brooklyn leads the NEC in scoring defense (63.4) field goal defense (.387), three-point defense (.229), rebounding defense (34.6) and rebounding margin (+1.4).
 
Over the last three years, Wagner is 18-1 when scoring 80 or more points, 29-3 when shooting 45 percent of higher and 45-1 when leading with five minutes to play, including 38 straight.
 
Wagner senior Naofall Folahan blocked a personal-best matching seven shots against Stetson, just one off of Miladin Mutavdzic’s single-game school record of eight (2/29/92).

QUOTABLE
 
“It was a gritty win for us, other than the free throws at the end.  Brown is good.  We beat a very good team. These are the types of games that by the end of the season make or break your year.  We had the same kind of win at New Hampshire.  They all add up.” - Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea on his team’s 70-67 win over Brown on Wednesday
 
“I’m really proud of the team stepping up to play one of the best mid-major teams in basketball and playing very well.” - Mount St. Mary’s head coach Jamion Christian after the Mount knocked off Bucknell on Tuesday
 
“I just want to give Sacred Heart a lot of credit.  I thought, in particular (Phil) Gaetano and (Steve) Glowiak, I thought those two played terrific and came out of the gates.  They deserve a ton of credit because they could have easily won this game.’’ - Boston College head coach Steve Donahue after the Eagles beat Sacred Heart in OT, 75-67, on Tuesday
 
“Ben {Mockford} told me in the huddle that I would have a good chance of being free for the rebound.  My defender left to double Sheldon and I was wide open for the tip-in.” - St. Francis Brooklyn freshman forward Wayne Martin on his game-winning tip-in at Stony Brook on Sunday
 
“We feel that we have so many scorers on the perimeter that when we start making shots like that no one can stop us. I shot them from pretty deep tonight but they came in the flow of the game.” - Wagner’s Marcus Burton who scored 21 in a win over Stetson last Monday
 
TWEET DECK
 
Vin Parise @VinParise
Northeast conference recently has road wins at Miami, at Rutgers, at Seton Hall, at Fordham and at Stony Brook.....
 
Nelson Castillo @NelCastBHJ
Big wins for the #NECMBB today with LIU Brooklyn, St. Francis Brooklyn (beating Stony Brook) & FDU (beating Seton Hall). FDU w/ b2b major Ws
 
Steve Finamore @CoachFinamore
St. Francis of Brooklyn beats Stony Brook. #FDU beats Seton Hall. #LIU beats Norfolk State. A good day for the #NEC.
 
Ellis Rua @RuaRoots
On my way back from Stony Brook, just watched my Terriers defeat a Tournement caliber team in SBU. Proud of Braica and the boys.
 
Jon Rothstein @JonRothstein
Glenn Braica continues to do MORE with LESS at St. Francis NY. Terriers beat a very good Stony Brook team on the road 70-68.
 
John Templon @nybuckets
Great win at Stony Brook. Maybe more impressive than at Miami (FL). RT @SFBKTerriers: #SFBKMBB wins it 70-68!
 
CollegeHoopsDigest @NCAAhoopsdigest
LIU wins on a last second layup. Pandemonium in the arena. @jaybrick15 drove length of court passed to Joseph for layup. #necmbb
 
Kevin Doyle @KLDoyle11
Big time win for Mount St. Mary’s over Bucknell. They looked like the team many thought would be in the upper tier of the NEC tonight.
 
Peter Yannopoulos @PeteYannopoulos
I will not want to face @AnthonyLatina team come February and March in the #NEC. Lost a heartbreaker in OT at BC tonite. Watch out!!!
 
Sara DePouw @Sara_DePouw
Bryant Beats Brown! #ProudToBeABulldog