FLORENCE, Italy -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team continued it tour of Italy with a trip to Florence where the Stags played their second game on this 10-day tour. The team's next game on the docket matches it with an All-Star team in Venice on August 17. In Tuesday night's game, Fairfield fell to the Italy All-Stars by an 80-67 count, but the Stags made significant strides from their first game setback against BC Silute.

"The difference between Game 1 and Game 2 couldn't be any greater," Head Coach Sydney Johnson said. "In Game 1, our new guys looked shell shocked. It simply wasn't Running Stags basketball and it took a pointed film session on our off day to clarify how we play at Fairfield. Game 2 was really encouraging because although we remain shorthanded, we made a much better account of ourselves offensively and defensively. As a team, our communication on defense, our rebounding, ball movement and mental toughness took two steps forward. The growth in such a short time is clear and to that end these games have been priceless."

Tyler Nelson led all Fairfield scorers with 25 points and added a team-best five assists while Matija Milin and Ferron Flavors Jr. just missed double figures with nine and eight points, respectively. Milin and Wassef Methnani paced the team with seven rebounds each.

While the team continues to tour the country and see much of the history of Italy, Coach Johnson has also had a chance to introduce his team to some of his own personal history as a basketball player who played professionally in Italy.

"On a personal note, this trip has me so humbled to be able to further the relationships that I enjoyed as a pro player from 1997 to 2002," Johnson said. "During our first game, my coach from Reggio Calabria, Gaetano Gebbia, made the trek up from southern Italy to watch our team play. This evening, one of the talented young players from the opposing team asked to take a picture with me after the game. It turns out that this young man wanted to share the picture with his professional coach for this upcoming season, Fabrizio Frates, the same man who coached me in my first year in Italy (Gorizia Pallacanestro). Basketball—home and abroad—keeps giving me memories to last a lifetime."

The team will depart Florence and makes its way to Venice today before ending the tour at Lake Como.