FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- After playing six of their last seven games at home, the Fairfield University men's basketball team will take to the road for a match up against MAAC leader Monmouth University on Friday night. The game will tip off at 7 pm on ESPN3.
The game features two of the top offensive teams in the MAAC. Monmouth comes into Friday's game ranked first in scoring offense with 80.3 points per game while Fairfield is tied for second with Canisius at 79.0 points per contest. The Stags were the number one scoring offense coming into the week but saw their average fall after scoring 59 points against Quinnipiac.
Monmouth owns a 10-2 MAAC record and holds a one-game lead over Iona and a two-game edge on Siena. The Hawks come off a 93-87 win over Siena, the most points since they defeated Iona 110-103 in late January. In the win over Siena, Justin Robinson scored a career-best 36 points to become the first Hawk to tally that many points since 2001. Monmouth led for all but two minutes of the game and never led by less than two points in the second half. Robinson was one of five Hawks to reach double figures in the Siena game, led by starter Micah Seaborn and reserve Austin Tilghman with 12 points each.
Robinson is one of three MAAC student-athletes averaging at least 20 points per game as his 20.8 points every forty minutes places third in the conference and first on the team. Seaborn is next in line with an 11.9 scoring average which stands 25th among the MAAC scoring leaders. Deon Jones is the team leader with a 6.7 rebounding average. Robinson is the team's top three-point threat with 55 in his 23 appearances.
Fairfield comes off a 64-59 loss to Quinnipiac at home, the team's fourth home loss in 12 decisions this season. The Stags are one of six teams with at least a .500 conference record thus far, and place sixth in the MAAC standings. Tyler Nelson led all Fairfield scorers with 13 points, while Marcus Gilbert added 11 points in the setback. Coleman Johnson had a strong defensive game with five blocked shots and nine rebounds. The Stags blocked seven shots against the Bobcats, the most since rejecting nine shots at Bucknell. Fairfield and Quinnipiac played through seven lead changes and four ties before the Bobcats took the lead for good at 50-49 with 8:34 left in the game.
Gilbert leads the team in scoring overall with 18.6 points per game, followed by Tyler Nelson (15.9 points per game) and Curtis Cobb (10.1 points per game). Jonathan Kasibabu has 5.3 rebounds per game which one-tenth of a rebound off Gilbert's team high of 5.4 caroms per game.
