FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team will open play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Tuesday, December 1 when it heads to Iona College for a 7 pm game. It's the first of two conference games this week with the Stags hosting Rider University on Friday, December 4 at Webster Bank Arena.
Fairfield brings a three-game winning streak into this game after extending the run with an 82-81 decision over Columbia University last Friday. The decision was Fairfield's second overtime victory, beating Sacred Heart University earlier in the month.
The Gaels found the confines of the Hynes Center to their liking as it provided the backdrop for a 92-77 win over Delaware on November 20. Iona will play its first game since that victory, a span of 10 days.The result was Iona's 20th straight victory at the Hynes Center.
Senior A.J. English was the catalyst for the Gaels, recording a double-double with 25 points and 10 assists. The win followed a pair of season-opening road losses to Valparaiso and Oregon State. After the Fairfield game, the Gaels will play five of its next six games on the road, sending the team to New York, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Nevada.
For the season, the Gaels are averaging 74.3 points per game, netting a season-high 92 points in the win over Delaware. Last season, Iona scored more than 90 points three times, highlighted by 126 points in a 50-point win over Delaware State. Schadrac Casimir tallied a school freshman record 40 points in that game. Casimir is averaging 8.3 points per game this season in his three starts. English is the team's top scorer so far, averaging 19 points per game as well as a team-best six assists per contest.
Two other Gaels are scoring in double figures, namely Dayshonee Much (13.0 ppg) and Isaiah Wililams (10.3 ppg). Jordan Washington is playing well on both ends of the court, averaging 8.7 points and a team-best 5.7 rebounds every forty minutes. Iona is averaging 11 three pointers per game with Much providing nearly 27 percent of those baskets by making nine of 17 shots from behind the arc.
The Stags evened up the team's record at 3-3 following its decision over Columbia. Fairfield picked up the win behind a career-high 33-point effort from Marcus Gilbert, just three days after he posted 32 points against Maryland-Eastern Shore. He was one of three Fairfield players in double figures, joining Tyler Nelson (11 points) and Matija Milin (10 points) for that distinction.
Nelson (44 minutes) and Gilbert (42 minutes) were on the court for nearly the entire game while Milin just missed the 40-minute mark with a personal-best 38 minutes played. Nearly half of the team's scoring output came from the reserves as the Stags bench combined for a season-high 30 points. In addition to Milin's success, Kevin Degnan and Steve Smith each scored a season-high six points.
Gilbert improved his scoring average to 21.3 points after the Columbia game, placing him 23rd in the nation. Nelson is the other Stag in double digits with 12.3 points per contest. Jerry Johnson Jr. is just under that mark, netting 9.8 points per contest. Jonathan Kasibabu is tops in the rebounding department with 6.0 per game, slightly higher than Gilbert's 5.2 caroms per game.
