HOBOKEN, N.J. (February 26, 2020)  – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's basketball team welcomes Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Campus to Canavan Arena for a MAC Freedom semifinal matchup at Canavan Arena.

Game Info: Live Stats | Video

The Series
The Ducks have 13 of the last 14 meetings between the teams, including a sweep of this year's season series, the first for the programs as conference opponents. FDU's last victory over Stevens was a 62-60 decision in Madison on Nov. 22, 2016. Stevens topped the Devils 80-69 in Hoboken and came away with a hard-fought 72-70 decision on the road, when Andy Fleurantin's desperation three fell to the wayside in the final seconds. 

Chasing History
With the Ducks' 82-68 victory over King's last Saturday, Stevens clinched its first conference regular-season title since the 2012-13. Although the Ducks have made two trips to the NCAA Tournament, both came as an at-large bid recipient. Stevens remains in search of its first conference postseason championship. A victory in today's semifinal would be the first postseason win for the team since the 2017 Empire 8 Conference Tournament.

At 21-4, the Ducks have posted the second-most victories under 12th-year head coach Bobby Hurley. The team won 22 games in both the 2010-11 and 2012-13 seasons and the program record for victories in a single season in 23.

Stevens remains atop the NCAA's Atlantic Region standings.

Defense 👏 Defense 👏
Although the Ducks score 74.4 points per game, the team's calling card has been its defense. The Ducks are holding opponents to 65.6 points per game to lead the MAC Freedom. In conference-only games, that number drops to 64.9. Stevens currently ranks 11th in Division III in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 39 percent from the floor. The team also ranks 16th in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 29.9%. Additionally, Stevens is climbing up the turnovers forced list, moving into 49th, causing 16.88 miscues per game.

Senior Dylan Walsh and graduate student Kevin Florio often key the defensive efforts. Florio ranks fifth in the conference in steals, while Walsh is often tasked with guarding the opposing team's top offensive threat.

He's on 🔥
Senior Spencer Cook ranks second in the country in 3-point shooting. The Washington Township, New Jersey native is shooting 49.6 percent from behind the arc. He also ranks 89th in total points (470) and is shooting over 50 percent (50.2%) from the floor, to rank seventh in the MAC Freedom in field-goal percentage. By the way, Cook is also shooting 86 percent from the line. This season, Cook has scored his 1,000th career point, while moving into the program's all-time top-10 in career scoring.

Chairman of the Boards
Junior Alec DiPietrantonio leads the team with 234 rebounds, including 76 on the offensive end. The third-year center ranks among the national leaders in defensive rebounds per game (6.32), offensive rebounds per game (3.04) and total rebounds per game (9.4). He's also 68th in blocked shots and 30th in double-doubles.

Figuring Out FDU-Florham
The Devils enter tonight's game with a 12-13 overall record and an even 7-7 mark in conference play. FDU-Florham topped Wilkes 94-78 in the season finale to reach the postseason for the first time since 2013-14. The Devils have alternated wins and losses over their last nine contests. In its victory over Wilkes, FDU-Florham set a single-game program record for points (94) and made threes (22).

The Devils certainly have the green light from second-year head coach Jeff Slanovec. The team ranks ninth in the country with 12 made threes per game and their 300 three-pointers ranks 10th. The 300 threes also marks a program record.

Senior Kenneth LaRocca has been a key distributor for the program, leading the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (5.06) and as a team, the Devils ranks 31st (1.37). The team is also 11th in fewest turnovers committed, averaging 10.4 per game. Interestingly enough, the team is 17th in personal fouls per game (14.2).

Looking Ahead
The winner of tonight's contest takes on the winner of the Eastern-DeSales matchup on Saturday. The other MAC semifinal is being contested in St. Davids and the Eagles swept the season series with the Bulldogs. If Stevens is hosting, Saturday's game will be at 3 p.m. in Canavan Arena.

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