Courtesy: Fayetteville State Athletics
Fayetteville, NC — Three Broncos near 20-point feats in Capel Arena as Fayetteville State defeated Francis Marion 88-78 in non-conference action Thursday afternoon.
Darian Dixon (Bowie, MD) netted a career-high 21 points with a perfect 6-6 in field goals and a 9-of-10 appearance at the free-throw line. Denzell Hosch (Shelby, NC) scored 19 points with four three-pointers and Jalen Seegars finished with a double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds.
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Will Brown (Gresham, SC) also had a big game with 16 points, six rebounds, and three blocks.
“We had a long layoff since December 21st and didn’t get back to practice until December 30th,” said Head Coach Luke D’Alessio after the win to start the new year. “I knew we would be rusty, but I didn’t know we would be that rusty cause we made some mistakes. I thought we should have had the lead after the first half. I thought we played a terrific second half except for the late turnovers.”
Fayetteville State made 19-of-24 free throws (79.17%) in the second half and out-rebounded the Patriots 43-29 for the game.
The game played out balanced until the 9:45 mark of the second half when Francis Marion held its final lead of the game at 58-57. After two trips to the free-throw line by Dixon and a 61-58 lead, Fayetteville State exploded to a 13-0 run after a Will Brown layup and a dunk by Dixon. Seegars netted a pair of free throws before another Dixon dunk and sunk third three of the game. Another layup by the game-leading scored [Dixon] gave FSU a 74-61 lead with 6:13 left.
The Broncos would reach its largest lead of the game (84-68) with 2:38 left in the regulation.
Winston Hill led Francis Marion with 20 points and Kendall Wall with scoring assistance from Douglas Dwight added 15 points and ten points, respectively.
Fayetteville State will travel to Petersburg, Va. To face Virginia State University on Saturday, January 4th at 4 p.m.