The men’s basketball team lost to Fairleigh Dickinson, 85-76, on Tuesday in the Northeast Conference Championship in front of a capacity crowd of 2,610 fans at the Stokes Center.

It was SFU’s first home championship game appearance since March of 1991.

Saint Francis opened the game on an 11-2 run before the Knights answered with a 16-2 run to take an 18-13 lead. SFU trailed 40-31 at the half, but cut the deficit to 55-52 on a lay-up by NEC Player-of-the-Year Keith Braxton with 11:09 remaining.

Fairleigh Dickinson, however, responded with a 10-0 run to take a 13-point lead and then held off the Red Flash down the stretch.

The Knights connected on 30-of-47 shots from the field (63.8 percent), the highest shooting percentage against the Red Flash all season.

FDU shot 90 percent from the free throw line (18-for-20), while Saint Francis was 4-of-17 from the line (23.5 percent). This marked the lowest free throw percentage for SFU in any game over the last 10 seasons.

SFU outrebounded FDU, 29-25.

Senior point guard Jamaal King led the Flash with 21 points and eight assists.

Saint Francis (18-14) will participate in the National Invitation Tournament later this month.