Jan. 31, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CT - Setting The Scene: The Sacred Heart men's basketball team has won five straight games and puts the streak on the line Thursday night when it travels to New Jersey to take on Fairleigh Dickinson University at 7 p.m.

Series: This is the 15th career meeting between these schools and series is deadlocked at 7-7. Sacred Heart won an earlier meeting this season in Fairfield, 87-82. The two teams split a pair of games last year. FDU won in Fairfield, 91-88, while the Pioneers won 86-82 in New Jersey. These teams hooked for one of the most memorable games in NEC history. On December 1, 2001 in New Jersey the two teams combined for 263 points in a 133-130 Sacred Heart victory in four overtimes!

Upcoming Games: The Pioneers will head to Brooklyn on Saturday looking to get revenge at St. Francis- NY for a loss earlier in the season.

Scouting the Opponent: Fairleigh Dickinson is 6-12 overall and 2-6 in the Northeast Conference. The Knights have lost five of the last six games and are coming off a 71-67 home loss to Wagner on Sunday.

Senior guard Manny Ubilla leads the team, and the NEC, in scoring at 20.8 points per game. He is also averaging 5.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game. He has nailed 45 three-pointers at a 44 percent clip. He had 28 the first time these teams met this season

Sophomore guard Sean Baptiste is second on the team, and third in the conference, in scoring at 19.2 per contest. He is also the team leader in rebounding at 6.1 per game. He poured in a career-high 33 points in the first meeting.

Senior guard Bernell Murray is third in scoring at 9.8 points per game and is second on the team with 27 steals.

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