Fairleigh Dickinson guard Grant Singleton, center, celebrates after throwing a basket into the Purdue net during the second half of the college’s first-round basketball game during the Men’s NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday. FDU will go on to win, beating the top seed Purdue University.
Michael Conroy/AP
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Michael Conroy/AP
Fairleigh Dickinson guard Grant Singleton, center, celebrates after throwing a basket into the Purdue net during the second half of the college’s first-round basketball game during the Men’s NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday. FDU will go on to win, beating the top seed Purdue University.
Michael Conroy/AP
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fairleigh Dickinson became the second 16th seed in history to win an NCAA Tournament game, beating top seed Purdue 63-58 by 19 points from Sean Moore and a restless, hustling defense on Friday night.
The lowest team in the league, the Knights (21-15) showed no fear as they overran Zach Edey, the 7-foot-4 all-American center from the start. FDU’s players were quicker and calmer than Big Ten champion Boiling (29-6).
Five years ago, UMBC paved the way for the little boys by overwhelming Virginia in its first 16-to-1 victory after several close runs over the years. However, No. 16 had a 1-150 record compared to No. 1 and was 1 – 151 in the end before FDU’s shock.
After the final whistle, FDU players clashed with each other on the floor of the Nationwide Arena, where fans from Memphis and Florida Atlantic joined forces to cheer for the Knights in the final minutes.
Fairleigh Dickinson didn’t even win the Northeast Conference Tournament, losing to Merrimack by one point in the title game, who couldn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament because NCAA rules forbade it from participating after the season because of it. still completing the four-year transition from Division II.
FDU held Purdue goalless for more than five and a half minutes during the stretch and took a five-point lead on Moore’s 3-point line – who hailed from suburban Columbus – with 1:03 remaining. The Knights have held their ground ever since, becoming the second consecutive double-digit seed to bring home the team’s team. Purdue was 3rd seed when it lost to 15th seed Saint Peter’s, another small New Jersey school, in the round of 16 Sweet last year.
Edey finished with 21 points and 15 bounces in what could have been his last college game, but the Knights kept denying his ball for extended periods of time. He didn’t take a shot in the last nine minutes. The junior center might be an NBA lottery pick, but the bitterness of this defeat could keep him tied for another year.
The Knights’ two previous NCAA Tournament wins were in the first quarterfinals, including this year, when they beat Texas Southern by 84-61. After that game, Knights coach Tobin Anderson told his players he believed they could deal with Edey and Co.
“The more I see Purdue, the more I think we can beat them,” Anderson told the players in the dressing room.
Several Purdue players said they felt disrespected by comments that turned out to be prophetic.
The Knights will now meet the winner of Memphis-Florida Atlantic on Sunday for the Sweet 16 landing and outing at Madison Square Garden in New York next week – just blocks from the private campus in Teaneck, New Jersey a short drive.
