16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson's magical NCAA run comes to an end

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Coach Tobin Anderson said he and his Fairleigh Dickinson players will remember it all.

«Everything. Everybody chanting 'F-D-U.' The place going crazy. The police escorts. Leaving the hotel with the band playing,» Anderson said. «Every part of this I'll remember forever — and they will, too.»

FDU's magical NCAA tournament run finally came to an end Sunday night. Florida Atlantic held off a ferocious second-half run from the 16-seed Knights to defeat them 78-70 and advance to the Sweet 16 in Madison Square Garden in New York instead.

«Their scrappiness, their physicality was exceptional,» said Owls coach Dusty May, whose team will face fourth-seeded Tennessee. «We just made enough plays to win… but they were easy [for the crowd] to root for, the way they were playing.»

Two days after pulling off one of the biggest stunners in college basketball history, FDU nearly delivered another.

Spanning the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, FDU utilized a 12-1 run to take its first lead of the game, the go-ahead basket coming on a 3 by Joe Munden Jr. with 18 minutes to play.

But Florida Atlantic eventually pulled away behind a historically prolific effort by guard Johnell Davis, who scored 29 points. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Davis is the only player to finish with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals in an NCAA tournament game since steals became an official statistic in 1986. Davis scored 20 of his points in the second half.

The Knights «brought out the best in us,» Davis said.

On Friday, the Knights defeated Purdue 63-58 to become just the second 16-seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in the men's NCAA tournament. Entering Friday, 16-seeds were 1-150 in the