FDU unable to close against Army in Thanksgiving Eve matinee

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

TEANECK, N.J. — Intensity and some drama were the order of the afternoon. The Thanksgiving holiday was a day away and rest assured, no one was thinking turkey, stuffing or pumpkin pie.

The final game in the FDU Thanksgiving Basketball Classic, featuring nine lead changes and four ties, saw Army West Point defeat FDU, 81-73. Wednesday’s game at the Bogota Savings Bank Center saw Army improve to 2-6, while FDU dropped its second straight and stands at 1-6.

Points of Emphasis

Bounce back: This game meant more than a battle for second place in the round-robin event. Both teams were coming off losses to East Texas A&M. On Monday, FDU jumped out to a 17-point first half lead. The visiting Lions of the Southland Conference buried ten threes following the intermission to come away with a 70-65 victory. The following afternoon, Army also had an early lead. The Black Knights also relinquished it and fell by a 84-67 count.

Entering this final game of the tournament, it was safe to say both teams were hungry for a victory.

The stretch: Jack Castleberry was on his knees, slapping the floor.The FDU coach was ignoring his team to get a stop as the Knights trailed by one with four minutes remaining. They didn’t get the stop. In fact, Army began to pull away in the waning moments. FDU battled back and it was a two-possession game in Army’s favor. With 18 seconds remaining in regulation, it appeared an Army player may have traveled and a split second later, an FDU defender was whistled for a foul. Castleberry protested vehemently and was on the floor when he was hit with a technical foul. The coach then started to move toward the officials, and was restrained by his assistants as he was hit with a second technical and ejected.

Balance: With just over eight minutes to play, Army had no double-figure scorers. On the flip side, ten Black Knights entered the scoring column. In simple terms, this was a tough team to defend. Another facet making Army a tough matchup was the fact that it came into the game leading the nation in percentage of field goal attempts from beyond the arc. The Black Knights had 55 percent of their shots coming from long distance. On the afternoon, they attempted 28 of their 53 field goals from deep, adding to that a solid inside threat in Jacen Holloway. The 6-foot-3 Army forward had a quick first step and went to the basket with authority. Holloway finished with 12 points for the game.

Postgame: Castleberry did not meet with the media following the contest. The FDU mentor is one of the most pleasant and cooperative postgame interviews you will ever find. Given the heat of the moment and emotions involving those final seconds, it’s understandable that Castleberry would not opt for an interview. In that situation, any coach just might say the wrong thing. Joey Niesman, FDU’s graduate guard, spoke about the team in general.

“We’re going to stay together,” he said. “We’re going to figure this thing out. Everybody is putting the work in every day, so it’s all going to come together at some point. We trust in our coaches and they put us in the right place. It comes down to wanting it more. Our coaching staff is elite, very intense and they want it very bad. Once we match that want, we are going to click.”

Niesman said Castleberry’s postgame message to the team focused on late-game execution.

“He let us know we have to be better in these moments at the end of the game,” Niesman said. “We tend to fold up and lose confidence. That’s when we need it the most.”

Niesman scored 17 points and handed out six assists, both team highs, against East Texas A&M. He followed that up by scoring just six points against Army. But all the 6-foot-2 guard could say was, “my defense has to be better. I have to be locked in and more intense.”

Technically speaking: Besides Castleberry’s two technicals, FDU’s Arthur Cox was whistled for one with six seconds left. Over the course of the last eight minutes, Army scored two field goals, both by Joshua Eli. The Black Knights, largely due to the technicals, shot 19-of-23 from the charity stripe over that same timeframe.

Army returns home to host Manhattan on Saturday. For FDU, a team that has already visited Iowa State, Texas and rival Saint Peter’s, the next stop is Tuesday at Providence.