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FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The final weekend of the regular season comes into play this weekend as the final seedings for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) will come into shape by Sunday night. The Fairfield University men's basketball team plays two pivotal games as it jockeys for position in the standings, beginning with Friday night's match up at Manhattan College. Tip off is slated for 9 pm on ESPNU.

The Stags (17-12 overall, 9-7 MAAC) and the Jaspers (11-16 overall, 8-8 MAAC) will meet for the second time this year with Manhattan winning the first game of the season series on February 12. The game was played at Alumni Hall after Winter Storm Nemo forced the postponement of the game from February 9 at Webster Bank Arena. Fairfield has lost just one MAAC game in its last eight outings, winning five straight in conference play before the Manhattan result.

Fairfield, along with the rest of the conference, took a brief hiatus from MAAC action when it participated in the Ramada Worldwide BracketBuster last weekend. The Stags fell to the University at Albany by a 58-50 margin, while Manhattan came from behind to knock off the University at Buffalo by a 65-64 count. Derek Needham led all scorers in the Albany game, posting 15 points in 31 minutes of work. Keith Matthews received his first start  in over a month ahd peformed admirably with 11 points and four steals in 37 minutes.

This game features the top two defensive teams in the MAAC with the Stags allowing 60.1 points per game and the Jaspers yielding 61.8 points every forty minutes. Fairfield is ranked 36th in the nation for scoring defense, a direct result of the fact that it has kept the opposition under 60 points in seven of its last nine games.

Manhattan has won six of its last eight games, making the Jaspers one of the hottest teams in the MAAC, The teams comes off a come-from-behind victory against Buffalo in the BracketBuster (65-64) last weekend. Rhamel Brown has leads the team in practically every statistical category. The forward is the team's top scorer with 11.8 points per game and leads the MAAC with a .560 field goal percentage. Michael Alvarado is next in line with an 8.7 scoring average, followed by Emmy Andujar (7.7 ppg) and Shane Richards (7.4 ppg). The Jaspers finish the regular season on the road, heading to Baltimore for a Sunday afternoon match up with Loyola University.