FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- It's a typical year for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Coming into the final weekend of the regular-season, seedings are still up for grabs. Now some teams know what day they will play in next week's MAAC tournament, but they don't necessarily know who the opponent will be. You can put Fairfield and Saint Peter's in that scenario as both programs will play on Saturday night at the Times Union Center in Albany. Both who they will play and what time they will play, well you just need to follow all the action this weekend.
The Stags and the Peacocks close out the men's basketball regular season at the Yanitelli Center on Saturday at 2 pm. These two teams are no stranger to one another, especially in postseason play. Fairfield and Saint Peter's have faced one another in the first round of the last three MAAC tournaments and could possible make it four in a row this year.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves as there is still one game left on the regular-season schedule. Fairfield and Saint Peter's will play for the first time since the Peacocks posted a 77-71 decision over the Stags at Alumni Hall in mid-January. Since that loss, Fairfield has won nine of 11 games including its last six outings.
Fairfield continues to move up the Most Improved list as it has improved to 18-11 overall this year. The Stags, which won seven games a year ago, are now tied for third at +11 in the win column from last year to this season along with Ball state (7 wins to 18 wins). Tennessee State at +14 (5 wins to 19 wins), and Arkansas-Little Rock (13 wins to 25 wins) at +12 wins are currently ahead of the Stags. After Fairfield, St. Joseph's (13 wins to 23 wins) places next with +10 , followed by Southern Illinois (12 wins to 21 wins) at +9.
Saint Peter's has won five of its last seven games including a 61-40 victory over Manhattan in the team's last game., improving to 13-15 overall and 11-8 in MAAC play The team is looking for their 12th MAAC win today which would be the first time it reached that many conference wins since going 12-6 in the 2003-04 season. The team put itself in this position with its road win against the Jaspers. After taking a four-point lead at halftime, the Peacocks' defense held Manhattan to 19 second-half points and outscored the home team by 17 to win the game by 21 points. Quadir Welton posted a double-double in the Manhattan win, registering 18 points and 10 rebounds. With the score tied at 27-27 in the second half, Welton's jumper touched off a 16-0 run that enabled the Peacocks to control the game. Rodney Hawkins posted six points in that run and finished the game as the team's top scoring reserve with 16 markers.
Antwon Portley leads the team in scoring with a 14.3 scoring average, a number which places second among all MAAC freshman scorers. Trevis Wyche is next in line with 12.6 points per game, while Welton is a close third with 13 points every forty minutes. He is also the team's leading rebounder at 8.0 caroms per outing.
In their home finale, the Stags won their sixth straight game with their 76-69 decision over Siena. Fairfield never trailed in the game, opening the contest with 10 straight points with Jerome Segura netting the six of those points. Fairfield led by as many as 17 points in the second half at 51-34 with 14 minutes left. However, the Saints came back within a possession at 62-59 with just over two minutes remaining. But the Stags rebuilt the lead back to eight points with a 7-2 spurt that sealed the win. Starter Tyler Nelson and reserve Matija Milin paced the Fairfield offense with 16 points each, two of the team's five student-athletes in double figures. Four of Fairfield five starters hit the mark, namely Marcus Gilbert (12 points), Jonathan Kasibabu (11), and Segura (10). Coleman Johnson was responsible for five of the team's nine blocks.
Gilbert ranks first on the team and fourth in the MAAC with a 17.6 scoring average, while Nelson is next in line and eighth in the conference with 15.8 points per contest. Gilbert is also the team's top rebounder with 5.3 caroms every forty minutes. Segura could eclipse 150 assists this evening, checking into tonight just five short of that mark. He places third in the conference with 5.2 assists per game.
