Fairleigh Dickinson

Italian center Andrea Crosariol scored 18 points and Fairleigh Dickinson earned its first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1998 with a 58-52 victory over Wagner in the championship game of the Northeast Conference tournament last night in Hackensack, N.J. Mensah Peterson scored seven of his 13 points in the final 3 minutes, 28 seconds, including a critical three-pointer with 23.8 seconds to play, as the second-seeded Knights (20-12) gave coach Tom Green his fourth trip to the NCAAs in his 22-year career.

Italian center Andrea Crosariol scored 18 points and Fairleigh Dickinson earned its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1998 with a 58-52 victory over Wagner in the championship game of the Northeast Conference Tournament last night in Hackensack, N.J. Mensah Peterson scored seven of his 13 points in the final 3 minutes, 28 seconds, including a critical three-pointer with 23.8 seconds to play, as the second-seeded Knights (20-12) gave coach Tom Green his fourth trip to the NCAAs in his 22-year career.

Junior guard Suzanne Keilty tied a career high with 20 points last night as La Salle snapped a two-game losing streak with a 77-56 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson at Tom Gola Arena. Trailing by 18-17, La Salle (4-4) broke the game open with a 20-6 run to close the half. In the second half, the Explorers built a 20-point lead with 14 minutes, 4 seconds remaining, and the lead never got below 20 the rest of the way. La Salle hit 8 of 14 from three-point range for the game, including Keilty's 4 for 6. Overall, the Explorers shot 46 percent from the floor, while holding the Knights (2-6)

Phil Martelli has never been accused of being quiet, but in St. Joseph's 86-66 season-opening win over Fairleigh Dickinson, the Hawks coach was heard throughout a 30,000-seat dome. St. Joseph's played the second game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at the Carrier Dome in front of mostly empty bleachers, leaving Martelli's bellows about everything from defensive instructions to shot-clock malfunctions echoing throughout a desolate arena. The partisan crowd had left after Syracuse's 97-89 win over Siena in the first game.

For two teams that had never before met, St. Joseph's and Fairleigh Dickinson certainly seemed familiar with each other. It was the kind of familiarity that breeds contempt. How else to explain all the nasty elbows, angry glares and body-banging that went on between the Hawks and the Knights last night in a testy nonconference game that St. Joseph's held on to win, 78-74, at the Fieldhouse? Fairleigh Dickinson (13-4), which went into the game riding its best start in a decade, a team that will land in the NCAA tourney if it continues to control the Northeast Conference, figured a win over the defending Atlantic Ten Conference champion Hawks (6-8)

Bryant Coursey hit a three-pointer with 14.3 seconds remaining to lift Drexel to a 63-62 overtime victory over Fairleigh Dickinson yesterday in front of 1,128 at the Physical Education Center. With the victory, the Dragons proved they could win without star center Joe Linderman, who will miss the remainder of the season because of severe chronic back pain. They also gave rookie coach Steve Seymour the first win of his collegiate career. "We had to get the monkey off of our backs," said Seymour, who was an assistant at Drexel for eight years under Bill Herrion.

Along the urban shores of the Hackensack River, Drexel got involved in a game of hack-and-sack basketball with Fairleigh Dickinson last night in a nonconference encounter at the Rothman Center. The Dragons hacked their way to 23 fouls. But Drexel avoided the sack, turning aside a potential upset in the final minutes to prevail, 54-49. The Dragons' Chaz Crawford, who was on the bench a large portion of the game because of foul trouble, grabbed the rebound of Kenell Sanchez's missed three-pointer and got the ball back to Sanchez, who was fouled with 22 seconds left.

Villanova coach Steve Lappas usually dreads the annual game that immediately follows his team's final exams and precedes a short Christmas break, but what he saw last night defied any sort of custom or tradition, or even logic. The Wildcats jumped out to a 17-0 start against Fairleigh Dickinson, found themselves trailing by one point with 12 minutes to play in the game, and ended up with a runaway 85-63 victory over the Knights at the Pavilion. It was Villanova's sixth straight win. In what is sure to go down as one of their strangest games of the season, the Wildcats (7-1)

Against a team that lost by 59 points to Maryland one week earlier, Villanova looked ready to have a solid game to build its confidence and prepare for a demanding December. But after the Wildcats sputtered to a 62-52 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson last night at the Pavilion, coach Steve Lappas had the look of a man still getting over some bad turkey. "I told these guys that it's about as upset as I've ever been after a win," Lappas said. Adjusting his glasses, Lappas focused on a statistics sheet that said the Wildcats got outrebounded, 33-23, and shot only 4 for 17 from three-point range against the Knights' mostly-zone defense.

The Temple Owls were at their uncharacteristic best last night against Fairleigh Dickinson - and not just because John Chaney played his mostly forgotten bench for an unbelievable 27 minutes. The Owls committed an unheard-of 10 turnovers in the second half, including five in seven possessions. Eddie Jones, their flu-wracked No. 1 scorer, picked up his last two fouls in a 35-second span and left the game for good with 5 minutes, 10 seconds to play. And still the Owls, in their first bounceback game of the season, defeated the Knights, 63-51, in the consolation game of the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.

Montana Mayfield, a senior point guard from Abington Friends School, committed Wednesday to play basketball at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Last season while helping the Kangaroos win their first Friends Schools League championship since 2006, the 6-foot, 175-pounder averaged about 13 points and four assists per game. He also received interest from Fairleigh Dickinson and Liberty. "He's a point guard, but he can also play the wing," AFS coach Steve Chadwin said. "He can shoot the ball really well.

Jada Payne led a quartet of players in double figures with 17 points, but it wasn't enough as the La Salle women's basketball team dropped an 85-74 decision to Florida in the opening game of the Courtyard LaGuardia Turkey Classic in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Friday. The Explorers' Jordan Mosley and Alexis Scott each added 16 points, and Brittany Wilson chipped in 15. Florida's Jordan Jones led all scorers with 28 points. The Explorers (2-4) got off to a slow start offensively, shooting just 35 percent (7 for 20)

You won't hear Carrington Ward making the world's most common New Year's resolution. This guy loves carrying around extra weight. The more, the merrier. Even 100-plus pounds. What basketball player wants to add that much weight? One who has a vested interest in wanting to improve. Ward, a senior, carries 165 pounds on a 6-2 frame while starring at wing guard for Philadelphia Electrical & Technology Charter, commonly known as PET. It's when he is out somewhere practicing on his own, often under the supervision of his dad, Stephen, that he dons a heavyweight vest.

Cabrini College lacrosse player Casey Grugan broke an NCAA Division III record yesterday by scoring a goal in his 55th consecutive game. Grugan, a senior from Ridley, scored three goals and had an assist in a 16-7 season-opening victory over Fairleigh Dickinson. Grugan's record-setting goal came in the first quarter. "I was just looking to get it out of the way," he said. "I knew their goalie would come out hard on me, so I hesitated and was able to slip it past him. It was great to get it done early in the game.

Villanova coach Jay Wright has always approached Big 5 games with the utmost caution. Because he grew up in another era. So he fully understands what can happen, each and every time, regardless of whatever it might say on paper. Last December, a Wildcat team on its way to the Final Four almost certainly would have lost to Saint Joseph's at home, had the Hawks just made another free throw or two at the end. And a Temple team on its way to a second consecutive Atlantic 10 title also pushed the 'Cats for the first 30 minutes, again at the Pavilion.

Though raw, Villanova freshman Mouphtaou Yarou showed last night that he can defend, rebound and block out distractions. The 6-foot-10 center contributed six points, three rebounds and a blocked shot as the fifth-ranked Wildcats registered an 84-61 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson in their season opener at the Pavilion. Yarou looked nothing like someone who had been dealing with a lingering controversy over his age, and when he wasn't hustling against the Knights, also playing their first game, he was encouraging teammates.

Jim Furyk and Jonathan Byrd shared a one-stroke lead of the PGA Tour's Memorial yesterday after two rounds at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. They were at 7-under-par 137. Tiger Woods had his worst score in nearly 2 years - a 2-over 74 - and still was only six shots behind. Furyk hasn't been atop the leaderboard this deep into a tournament since winning the Canadian Open in 2007, his last PGA win. Mike Weir (69) and Mark Wilson (70) were at 6-under 138. In other golf news: Bernhard Langer took a one-stroke lead after one round of the Champions Tour's Triton Financial Classic in Lakeway, Texas.

HERE ARE A FEW words to live by from former Flyers forward Jeremy Roenick: "Don't drink and you won't stink. " Actually, Roenick didn't say those exact words, but that was his sentiment when he told the Associated Press that refraining from alcohol has given him a new lease on life and more energy to torment defenders. Now playing for San Jose, Roenick led the Sharks past Calgary on Tuesday night with a four-point performance (two goals), the NHL's highest-scoring effort in a Game 7 playoff since "The Great One" did it with the Kings in 1993.

There will be no shortage of high-quality high-school baseball talent in South Jersey this spring. Future Division I players are everywhere, and the area is especially strong in pitching - a position where major-league scouts will be keeping close tabs on several intriguing senior prospects, especially hard-throwing righthanders Quinton Miller of Shawnee and Charlie Law of Mainland. Here is a look at some of the area's top players: Head of the class Quinton Miller, P, Shawnee.

As Camden Catholic's talented boys' basketball team prepares to start the 2007-08 season, it knows it has a tough act to follow. It's one thing to try to repeat as champions in the stacked Olympic Conference National Division. It's another thing to try to deliver an encore to a late-season run that became known as "The Miracle of A.J. " Senior Anthony "A.J. " Jeune was seriously injured in a car accident in February and was in critical condition with a fractured skull and blood on the brain.