Fairleigh Dickinson defied the odds and took down Texas Southern 84-61 in the first game of the NCAA championship held Wednesday (March 15) in Dayton, Ohio.
See also: March Madness NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson, Princeton Look to Defy Odds
The team’s first NCAA Tournament win in four seasons, the Knights broke out with an early lead and never gave it up.
“Our press got us going, and then our half-court defense was excellent. We shared the ball. We played unselfish,” Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tobin Anderson told reporters after the game. “When you play that well, life’s pretty easy, so I thought we played very, very well.”
The no. 16 seeded Knights face top-seeded Purdue on Friday (March 17) in Columbus, Ohio.
The victory over Texas Southern gives the Knights a 20-win plateau for the 11th time overall. The first was in 2019 with the team’s first NCAA Tournament victory over Prairie View A&M 82-76.
“The 23-point win by FDU marks the largest by a Northeast Conference team ever in the NCAA tournament as the Knights improve to 2-6 all-time in the Big Dance,” according the a team statement on Thursday.
The 15-seeded Princeton Tigers are in Sacramento, California to take on the no. 2 seeded Arizona Tigers today at 4:10 p.m. (EDT), broadcast on TNT. This is the team’s 26th NCAA Tournament appearance.