FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team hosts Iona College for a Tuesday night matchup that will be broadcasted on ESPN3. The two teams will meet for the final time in the regular season, a week after the originally scheduled game was postponed due to inclement weather.
Fairfield and Iona will give it another try on Tuesday, playing a rescheduled game from last Monday. The game was postponed due to inclement weather. The two teams played each other on January 13 with Iona coming away with a 74-58 win in New Rochelle. Mike Kirkland paced the Stags with 18 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. A.J. English led all scorers with 21 points, netting nine of 11 shots from the floor.
More recently, Fairfield dropped a 69-58 decision to Saint Peter's. Marcus Gilbert posted 28 points in the setback at Saint Peter's, scoring 21 points in the second half. Mike Kirkland was the only other Stag in double figures with 11 points. Iona posted its fifth straight win, an 89-67 victory over Marist which ended the Red Foxes' four-game win streak. Freshman Schadrac Casimir netted 33 points to pace the Gaels' offense while David Laury tallied a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
The Gaels continue to roll in the MAAC, leading the conference in both overall wins (18) and conference victories (11). Iona leads all MAAC schools in most offensive categories including scoring offense (82.5 ppg), scoring margin (+7.7), field goal percentage (.477), and three-point field percentage (.409).
In addition to its five-game win streak, Iona has won 10 of 11 games since the start of 2015. The Gaels have scored 73 or more points in all but one game this year, being held to 68 points by MAAC scoring defense leader Saint Peter's. Iona ranks third in the nation for scoring, trailing BYU (84.9) and Northwestern State (84.7).
David Laury (21.2 ppg) places fifth in the nation for scoring while A.J. English ranks ninth (20.7 ppg). Laury is just under a double-double for the season with 9.2 rebounds per game which also ranks second in the MAAC. English leads the MAAC in assists (5.6 pg) and three-pointers per game (3.1 pg). Schadrac Casimir is the top scoring freshman in the conference, posting 14.1 points per game which also ranks 10th in the MAAC.
Marcus Gilbert continues to anchor the Fairfield offense, averaging 29 points per game last week which raised his scoring average to 16.8 points per game, a point higher than it was a week ago. He places fifth in the MAAC for scoring and is also ranked 16th in rebounding (5.4 pg). He has also become the work horse on this team registering 44 minutes at Rider which raised his minutes played to 34.6 per game, sixth in the MAAC.
Tyler Nelson missed most of the Rider game due to illness but came back to 29 minutes at Saint Peter's. He remains the team's second leading scorer with 8.4 points per game. Amadou Sidibe averaged seven rebounds per game last week, highlighted by his 11 rebounds at Rider, to bring his team-best rebounding average to 7.5 per game.
Tickets for the February 10 game are available at the Webster Bank Arena box office or by navigating to www.ticketmaster.com.
