FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The preseason is over. The exhibition game is done. And now, Head Coach Sydney Johnson and his roster of student-athletes will focus their attention on the 2016-17 regular season with the hopes of building on a 19-win season and a postseason berth from a year ago.
And to add to the season-opening excitement, the Stags will open the season at home by hosting Sacred Heart University at Webster Bank Arena on Friday night. The game marks the seventh time that these two schools will meet on the hardwood and the first time they open their season against each other since the 2013-14 campaign when they also played the Pioneers to start the season. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN3.
The Stags come off an impressive 2015-16 season which saw the team return to postseason play, earning a berth to the 2016 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. The program posted 19 wins a year ago, 12 more wins that the 2014-15 season which was one of the top improvements in Division I for 2015-16. The team will look to overcome the graduation of Marcus Gilbert, who led all Fairfield scorers with a 16.7 scoring average and finished his career with 1,661 points.
Despite Gilbert's departure, the Stags will have their next six scorers back in uniform this year, led by Tyler Nelson's 16.0 points per game. Plus, Fairfield boasts the return of the top scoring freshman class in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) as Curtis Cobb (10.8 ppg), Jerry Johnson Jr. (8.3 ppg), Matija Milin (8.2 ppg), and Jonathan Kasibabu (5.9 ppg) combined for 33.2 points per game.
Under Head Coach Anthony Latina, the Sacred Heart men's basketball program looks to build on last year's quarterfinal appearance in the 2016 Northeast Conference tournament. The Pioneers reached the tournament quarterfinals by finishing the campaign with a 12-18 overall record and an 11-7 mark in conference play. The program finished strongly by winning six of eight games in the month of February and six of its final seven home games.
The Pioneers open up locally with tonight's game against the Stags before hosting Hofstra University on November 15. After that game, Sacred Heart will participate in the Continental Tire Invitational that sends the team to the University of Arizona on November 18 followed by a road game against Santa Clara on November 21. From there, Coach Latina will bring the team to Las Vegas to finish out the four-game event, taking on Northern Colorado on November 24 and either Norfolk State or Bucknell on the following day.
Sacred Heart boasts the return of sophomore Quincy McKnight and redshirt senior Matej Buovac, who are two of the team's top returning scorers. McKnight averaged 11.4 points per game and shot 57 percent from the floor, while Buovac netted 6.3 points every forty minutes and averaged just over three rebounds per game.
The game is part of a doubleheader as the Sacred Heart and Fairfield women's basketball teams will play at 5 pm. Tickets for the doubleheader are available through Ticketmaster or at the Arena box office.
