CALDWELL, N.J. – The Felician University men's basketball team placed six scorers in double figures but dropped an 80-76 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference decision to host Caldwell University on Tuesday evening on the Newman Center's Corino Court. Felician settled for a split of the teams' 2021 two-game regular-season series.

Junior guard Etnik Peci (Pristina, Kosovo) led a balanced Felician offense with 16 points and added six rebounds, and classmate B.J. Saliba (Hackensack, N.J.) scored 14 points. But the Golden Falcons had trouble containing Caldwell junior guard Anthony Cooper (Ashburn, Va.), who was 12 for 19 from the field and finished with 31 points and six rebounds.

Each side enjoyed a lead as large as five points during the opening period. Caldwell went into halftime ahead, 36-34, on the strength of a tiebreaking Manley Dorme (Nanuet, N.Y.) layup in the closing seconds of the half.

The teams remained within four points of each other for most of the second half. With three minutes, 15 seconds, left in regulation time, the Cougars and Golden Falcons found themselves deadlocked at 67-67 following a Dee-End McRae (Newark, N.J.) second-chance layup for Felician.

But Caldwell's Daniel Dade Jr. (Springfield, Mass.) followed with a three-point field goal, and after a Felician misfire, Dorme scored on a putback. The Felician offense went cold, and the hosts extended the spurt to 11-0 to lead by that margin with 0:25 to play. A pair of late Golden Falcon threes provided the final margin.

The game featured 18 lead changes. Caldwell scored 20 of its points on second-chance opportunities. Junior Justin Davis (Jersey City, N.J.) netted 13 points with eight rebounds in 20 minutes off the Felician bench. Fellow Golden Falcons McRae, Nas Amos (Newark, N.J.) and Jaylen Colon (Paterson, N.J.) tallied 11 points each.

Felician last had six players score at least 10 points in a game in a Mar. 2, 2019, home victory over Georgian Court University.