Fairleigh

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Antwan Dasher scored 22 points to lead Fairleigh Dickinson to an 80-64 victory over Mount St. Mary's last night in the Northeast Conference regular-season finale for both.Riley Inge led the Mountaineers with 23 points. Chris McGuthrie and Michael Watson scored 13 each for Mount St. Mary's. Watson paced the Mount with 11 rebounds.Fairleigh Dickinson (15-11, 11-7) shot 52 percent in the first half to 27 percent for the Mountaineers (14-12, 12-6) in taking a 43-35 halftime lead.

Mike Owona was set to play basketball next year for a program transitioning to the Division I level. But after a coaching change, the John Carroll senior will instead suit up for an established DI team that has appeared in four NCAA tournaments. Owona committed Sunday to Fairleigh Dickinson, a Northeast Conference school located in Teaneck, N.J. “It feels pretty good,” Owona said. “I finally have it out of my mind. I feel good about it.” Owona had been committed to UMass-Lowell, a Division II powerhouse that will play its first season of DI competition during the 2013-14 season.

EMMITSBURG -- Go figure.Earlier last week, Mount St. Mary's went on the road, where it had a 24-game winless streak, and defeated two Northeast Conference opponents while shooting better than 50 percent in each game.Last night, the Mountaineers returned to Knott Arena and couldn't hit much of anything. The result was a 60-57 defeat to Fairleigh Dickinson, a team that was off to its worst start since 1964-65.Mount St. Mary's (3-7, 2-1) shot 36.5 percent from the field, made just two of 14 three-point attempts and got outfought inside by the injury-depleted Knights.

Baseball Ex-Oriole Lee activated, hits key slam for Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates activated former Orioles first baseman Derrek Lee from the 15-day disabled list Saturday and he used the opportunity to hit a grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning to the defeat the host Chicago Cubs, one of his previous teams. Lee was placed on the DL on Aug.13 because of a fractured bone in his left wrist. Lee, acquired from the Orioles just before the trade deadline, has not played since Aug. 9. He was hit on the wrist by the Chicago Cubs' Carlos Marmol on Aug. 3, then sat out four games before returning for two. Lee has played in just five games for the Pirates since the July 30 trade.

Amy Langville's desperation three-point shot at the buzzer fell short, and Fairleigh Dickinson beat Mount St. Mary's, 72-69, in a Northeast Conference game yesterday in Hackensack, N.J.It was only the fourth time in eight years in the NEC that the Mountaineers have lost back-to-back conference games.Fairleigh Dickinson (5-5, 1-1) jumped to a 20-12 lead midway through the opening period, but Mount St. Mary's (5-5, 0-2) tied the game at 27 with 2: 29 left in the half on Langville's three-pointer.

EMMITSBURG -- On the night the lights went out in Knott Arena, Mount St. Mary's couldn't win for losing.The Mountaineers went eight minutes without a field goal and lost their final home game, 81-76, in overtime to a Fairleigh Dickinson team that has made a habit of playing nail-biters."

EMMITSBURG -- The game was almost a formality, but Mount St. Mary's -- already the top seed for the Northeast Conference tournament -- had plenty to play for last night at Knott Arena."

COLLEGE PARK -- Missing a potentially game-winning shot in the final seconds of a season-opening loss made for a longer than normal weekend for Maryland junior forward Laron Profit. So Profit was ready when the Terrapins played their home opener against Fairleigh Dickinson last night."Yeah, I had a very bad taste in my mouth about missing that last shot," Profit said of the attempt in Friday's loss to South Carolina. "It stayed with me, and I had to deal with a lot of different things. But like my mom told me, the best medicine was to get back on the court and make sure I gave it my all."

The way UMBC men's basketball coach Tom Sullivan sees it, if no one player or two is going to step up on a regular basis, he'll give everyone a chance. Last night, it was junior guard Justin Wilson's turn to take the lead role, with a strong supportive cast enabling the Retrievers to handle visiting Fairleigh Dickinson, 81-70, in front of 1,413 at RAC Arena. The Retrievers got a game-high 18 points and six steals from Wilson; 14 points from Will McClurkin and 10 each from Andrew Feeley and Malik Wallace in a favorable reponse after Saturday's heartbreaking 78-73 double-overtime loss to Monmouth.

After watching a string of final-minute failures this season, UMBC coach Tom Sullivan was beginning to wonder if his young squad had the mettle to pull out a close game. He got the answer yesterday, as the Retrievers scored the final seven points to rally past Fairleigh Dickinson, 63-57, before 1,942 at RAC Arena. Kareem Washington scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half for UMBC, which trailed for the first 35 minutes but held Fairleigh Dickinson to one field goal over the final 10 minutes.

Mark Veazey scored four points in overtime, and free throws by Chris Harris and Kaleo Kina in the final minute of the extra period were the difference as Navy defeated host Bucknell, 62-60, last night. Kina had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Harris finished with 14 points, and Veazey scored 12 for Navy (16-7, 5-3 Patriot League), which squandered a 12-point lead in the second half. Patrick Behan had 20 points and 14 rebounds, Bryan Cohen scored 15 points, and Justin Castleberry added 13 points for Bucknell (5-18, 2-7)

Chris Vann scored 20 points - including six three-pointers - to lead the Mount St. Mary's men to a 78-61 win over host Fairleigh Dickinson last night. Shawn Atupem added 17 points, and Kelly Beidler came off the bench to grab a game-high 12 rebounds for the Mountaineers (12-13, 8-6 Northeast Conference). They shot 50 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Knights 50-28. Manny Ubilla had 20 points and five steals and Sean Baptiste finished with 13 points for Fairleigh Dickinson (7-16, 3-10)

Northeast Conference Site -- Home of higher seed When -- Today through Wednesday Web site -- northeastconference.org TV -- Title game on ESPN2 (Wednesday, 7 p.m.) Favorite -- NEC champion Central Connecticut State (19-11, 16-2) State entry -- No. 5 seed Mount St. Mary's (10-19, 9-9) Outlook -- Top seed Central Connecticut State will be the prohibitive favorite after winning 14 of its past 15 games and playing at home in its tournament games. The team most dangerous to the Blue Devils is Fairleigh Dickinson (14-15, 9-9)

NEC men What -- Northeast Conference men's tournament. Where -- Sites of the highest seeded teams. When -- Tonight and Sunday; cham pionship game on March 8. 2005 champion -- Fairleigh Dickin son. 2006 favorite -- Fairleigh Dickin son. This is the most well-rounded and talented team in the conference. The Knights have six players averag ing at least 7.4 points, including Chad Timberlake (team-high 15.5). They had an 11-game winning streak be fore a brief late-season letdown. Dark horse -- Mount St. Mary's.

COLLEGE PARK -- Less than 12 hours before boarding a plane to travel cross country and face one of the top programs in the nation, the Maryland men's basketball team first had to put Fairleigh Dickinson behind it last night in the season opener. It took about eight minutes. After an up and down start in which Maryland trailed three times, the Terps finally got into sync and cruised to a 111-85 win before a crowd of 17,950 at Comcast Center. Mike Jones came off the bench and scored a team-high 22 points, and Chris McCray and Nik Caner-Medley each chipped in 18. In all, six players reached double digits for the Terps.

COLLEGE PARK -- They were treated "like rock stars," Maryland coach Gary Williams said, freshman basketball players who arrived on campus and basked in the afterglow of a national championship they didn't win. Now, four years later, Nik Caner-Medley, Chris McCray and Travis Garrison are trying to earn one of their own. Tonight's 8 p.m. season opener against Fairleigh Dickinson marks the beginning of the last chance for the seniors, a group that has...

The Fairleigh Dickinson curse continued to haunt the UMBC men's soccer team yesterday. For the third straight season, the defensive-minded Knights knocked the Retrievers out of the Northeast Conference tournament, this time in a semifinal by taking a penalty kick shootout, 3-2, after 110 minutes of scoreless play in Catonsville. Third-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson advanced to tomorrow's noon title game against top-seed Long Island University, which beat Robert Morris, 3-0, with Oskar Tilly scoring all the goals.

COLLEGE PARK -- If everything went according to plan, the Maryland basketball team knew it would compete in six games over 13 days. Well, now make that compete in five games.Scoring 23 of the game's first 24 points, the No. 24 Terrapins didn't have to work very hard in routing overmatched Fairleigh Dickinson, 104-45, before 13,724 at Cole Field House last night. Maryland (3-0) jumped on a bus immediately after the game for tomorrow's Preseason National Invitation Tournament semifinal against No. 11 Kentucky in New York's Madison Square Garden.

COLLEGE PARK-- --Two hundred and forty-one days have passed, but finally it's here. A new season, a new start and for some, a last chance. Fairleigh Dickinson@Maryland Tonight, 8, Comcast SportsNet, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM

College Park -- It didn't matter if the jerseys they wore were red or black, turned inside or out. In all three 40-minute preseason scrimmages, the only team Maryland was facing was itself. And the Terps are tired of it. Maryland will finally face its first opponent in today's 2 p.m. exhibition game against St. Francis Xavier, a team from Canada with a 6-2 record in three exhibition tournaments. The host Terps are less concerned about the Division II opponent than they are about finding their own identity.