FDU christens new season with strong effort against LIU in NEC quarters

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

TEANECK, N.J. — The second season. Win or go home. Survive and advance.

Say what you will. The postseason is a time for seasons to extend or end abruptly.

FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley was well aware of this, but there was a quiet confidence. Gaitley knew the Knights’ Northeast Conference regular season championship and historic 16-0 perfect season in league play would matter and carry over once the postseason tournament began.

“We look at this as our third season,” Gaitley said. “We have the non-conference, the conference and the postseason. When we were 10-3, we went into conference play not hoping we would be good. We knew we were good. We ended up winning the conference convincingly. In the postseason, everyone thinks we all start at 0-0. It’s not 0-0 to us because we’ve proven how good we are.”

How good the Knights are was evidenced by FDU’s 73-44 dismantling of LIU in an NEC quarterfinal matchup at the Bogota Savings Bank Center. Monday’s game saw the Knights improve to 27-3, while LIU ended its campaign at 6-24.

The Knights led at halftime, 33-22. In the third period, a 15-8 run gave FDU separation and an 18-point lead. They never looked back.

“I thought defensively in the first half, we were not as sharp as we were in the second half,” Gaitley admitted. “Then our shots started to drop. At halftime, we made a couple adjustments on what we wanted to do against specific players. My biggest thing is, if you play defense, you will be in every single game. If you play defense and shoot well, you’re going to win. We shot well and outrebounded them (36-26), so overall it was a super effort.”

FDU finished the game with a 53 percent field goal

percentage. After the intermission, the Knights shot at a blistering 61 percent rate. The defense helped ignite the offense, as Gaitley noted, to the tune of a 25-5 advantage in points off turnovers. For the game, LIU shot just 38 percent. Only five of the Sharks’ 18 field goals were in the paint. Three of them came in the final period, with the hosts maintaining a 30-point lead at that juncture.

Points of Emphasis

Awards: The FDU team felt slighted. They felt Teneisia Brown should have been recognized as NEC Player of the Year. The award went instead to Central Connecticut’s Belle Lanpher.

“There was some disappointment in our locker room,” Gaitley admitted. “We felt Teneisia should have been Player of the Year, and I think she played that way tonight. We felt the number one thing would be team of the year. I was so proud of how she handled it, and I thought she established herself early.”

The game’s early possessions saw Brown getting a touch in the low post. The 6-foot-2 graduate center even showed a nice mid-range game. Brown was a 28-point, 10-rebound force. Both numbers were game-highs. She also had three steals, drew nine fouls, and had a plus-30 efficiency. For Brown, the inside effectiveness is rooted in practice.

“In my individual workouts, I do a lot of attacking the basket,” she said. “Different moves and different ways to finish.”

Mindset: Graduate guard Abby Conklin spoke about

the team’s general approach.

“I think we are super focused,” Conklin said. “We take it one day at a time. Whether it’s practice or a game, we are focused and ready to attack the next day.”

On FDU: LIU coach Rene Haynes commented on what makes the Knights so formidable and difficult to beat.

“They have the inside presence,” Haynes said. “Other than the inside, they have the perimeter where everyone is ready to shoot, everyone is ready to score. Even though Brown had a great night tonight, I think that could be a number of their players.”

Haynes continued her assessment of Brown.

“She never stops,” Haynes said. “She just keeps going. She’s not in every play, but she’s an option in every play and that’s what makes them as a team so

successful.”

Freshman promise: For LIU, it turned into a long night. A bright spot was the play of freshman guard Brianna Mead, who paced the visitors with 16 points, including a game-high four three-pointers.

“She’s coachable,” Haynes said. “I think in the postseason, she will learn to be more communicative. That’s the growing side of her being a point guard. She’s faced a couple of injuries and had to sit out a couple of games. I think with postseason improvements, she’s going to be ready again next season. She’s a great player and she loves the game.”

Notes: The Knights host Chicago State on Thursday in the NEC semifinals. FDU had arguably its two toughest conference meetings with the Windy City

representatives this season, winning at home by six in January and four on the road in February over the Cougars. Chicago State advanced by getting an upset win at Central Connecticut, 70-60.

Brown was honored pregame for recently scoring her 1,000th career point.

FDU’s perfect NEC record was its first, and marked the seventh time that feat was accomplished in conference play. The last time an NEC team ran the table was in 2012-13, when Quinnipiac accomplished the feat. The Knights’ last loss was on December 11, 2024, when FDU was defeated at Rutgers.

NEC Supervisor of Officials Jon Levinson was on

hand to evaluate the crew.