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FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team will open a three-game Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) road trip on Saturday night, traveling to Manhattan College for a 7 pm tip at Draddy Gymnasium. The Stags will also play against Rider University (January 5) and Iona College (January 7) during this three-game swing.

The Stags improved to 4-0 at Webster Bank Arena with its 70-61 win over Saint Peter's, pushing the team to a 1-0 start in conference play. Fairfield received a boost from freshman Omar El-Sheikh who scored 11 points off the bench and tied his career-high for scoring. The Stags fell behind in the opening minute as the Peacocks hit a pair of three pointers on their first two possessions. Fairfield followed with a 13-point run that pushed it into the lead, a position it would hold for nearly the entire game. The Stags fell behind one more time at 19-18 but rallied to take a 10-point halftime lead and never led by less than the four points for the remainder of the game.

Tyler Nelson led the team in scoring with 19 points, the sixth straight game in which he was the top scorer and the 10th time this season.  The senior brings a 20.8 scoring average into the Manhattan game which also places third in the MAAC. Matija Milin put forth a strong effort with 11 points and seven rebounds, which raised his team-leading rebounding average to 5.0 per game.

The Jaspers will be playing just their fourth home game of the season tonight which is somewhat significant since Manhattan has yet to lose at Draddy Gymnasium. Head Coach Steve Masiello watched his team defeat St. Francis N.Y., Harvard and Morgan State on the team's home court. Manhattan has played nine games away from campus including a conference-high five neutral site games (1-4 record). The team comes off a 74-62 setback against nationally-ranked Seton Hall, a game which Manhattan outscored their host by 10 points in the second half. Zane Waterman paced the Jaspers' offense with 17 points and added seven rebounds to his night. He made all seven of his free throws in the game which were also the only charity tosses taken by Manhattan that evening. Calvin Crawford was the team's only other double-digit scorer with 10 points as a reserve. Crawford was part of the bench that outscored Seton Hall by a 28-8 count in the game. 

Rich Williams is the team's top scorer for the season with a 13.5 scoring average, followed by Crawford's 10.8 points every forty minutes. The Jaspers have three student-athletes averaging 5.8 or more rebounds per game, including Waterman (6,2 per game), Pauly Paulicap (6.0) and Crawford (5.8).

This game represents the first meeting between Fairfield and Manhattan this season. The Jaspers hold a slight 51-48 edge in the series which began during the 1953-55 season. After a Manhattan win in the 1954-55 campaign, the series went on hiatus until the 1967-68 season which started Fairfield's four-game win streak within the series through the 1970-71 match up. Fairfield has won the last three games in the series, starting with the final meeting in the 2015-16 and including last year's season sweep by the Stags.