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FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- Head Coach Sydney Johnson looks for the success of the non-conference season to carry back over to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) slate as the Fairfield University men's basketball team gears up for conference play this week. The Stags will play three straight MAAC road games, starting with Thursday night's match up with Canisius College. Game time is slated for 7 pm.

The Stags, who own an 8-4 non-conference record with one left to play, split their opening MAAC games in early December with the loss coming to Canisius on December 7. The 67-55 setback was the last time that Fairfield suffered a loss as the team brings a five-game overall winning streak and a four-game road winning streak into the game against the Griffs. Fairfield extended both of those strings with a come-from-behind 55-54 win at Old Dominion on December 29.

Marcus Gilbert, who was named the MAAC Rookie of the Week, just missed a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds against ODU. Classmate Amadou Sidibe was the only Fairfield student-athlete to reach double figures with 10 points. The Stags trailed by 10 points with eight minutes remaining in the game before finishing off the contest with a 15-4 run that enabled them to post the one-point win.

Derek Needham sits atop the team scoring leaders with a 14.6 scoring average, followed by Maurice Barrow's 7.6 points per game. Sidibe is the team's top rebounder with 5.6 caroms per contest and continues to shoot at a sizzling pace of 64.4 percent from the field.

The Griffs continue to enjoy one of their best starts to a season despite falling to Detroit (83-78) in their last game. Canisius is the only remaining unbeaten MAAC team with a 2-0 record. Head Coach Jim Baron is finding unparallel success in his first year supervising the program.Canisius stands a 9-4 overall, the most wins the program has collected prior to January in school history. Two of the team's two losses have come on the road against nationally-ranked teams - #4 Syracuse (85-61) and #21 UNLV (89-74).

Billy Baron has been a tremendous addition to the team, leading the Griffs in scoring (17.8 ppg) and assists (5.4 apg). Harold Washington (14.2 ppg), Isaac Sosa (11.7 ppg), and Jordan Heath (10.4 ppg) are also averaging better than 10 points per game.  Sosa ranks second in the MAAC for three-point field goal percentage (.470) and three-point field goals per game (3.0). Baron ranks fourth in scoring among the conference leaders.

The road trip continues with a Saturday afternoon match up with Niagara University followed by a January 11 game at Loyola University. Fairfield returns home to host Niagara University on January 13 at 1 pm. Tickets for the January 13 game and all Fairfield basketball home games can be purchased through the Webster Bank Arena box office or on line at www.ticketmaster.com.