Five years and one day since UMBC became the first men's 16 seed to beat a 1, FDU pulled off the seemingly unthinkable yet again, knocking off No. 1 Purdue in a 63-58 shocker on Friday.
16 seeds are now 2-150 all-time since the men's tournament expanded to 64 teams.
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The win came down to great team defense, holding the Boilermakers to 36% from the field and just five 3-pointers.
Sean Moore led FDU in scoring with 19 points with two other teammates in double figures. His biggest shot came with just under a minute remaining when this 3-pointer extended his team's lead to 5 — a decisive blow on the scoreboard.
FDU FROM DOWNTOWN!!
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 18, 2023
THEY LEAD BY 5 😱 pic.twitter.com/RrW93vHbwp
Just days after their First Four win over Texas Southern, the Knights faced the prospect of playing a Purdue team that spent weeks as the No. 1 team in the AP poll and, naturally, a favorite to reach the Final Four.
Most intimidatingly, perhaps, was the towering challenge of nullifying the 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, Purdue's leading scorer and pillar in the paint — as DI men's basketball's shortest team, no less.
While Edey's stat line of 21 points and 15 rebounds looks pretty good, the Knights focused on stopping the rest of the Purdue offense, and it worked to perfection.
The people weren't too high on the Knights, either. FDU was the 2nd-least popular pick to win in the first round in the Bracket Challenge Game — only 2.36 percent of brackets picked the Knights over Purdue.
(16) FDU UPSETS (1) PURDUE 😱😱😱
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 18, 2023
MARCH. KEEPS. ON. GIVING. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/4T0K3n13Er
The Knights will now await the winner of No. 8 Memphis and No. 9 Florida Atlantic for their second-round clash on Sunday. With a win over the top-seeded team in the region under their belt, Cinderella is here.
