For the third time this season, Neftali Alvarez earned the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Rookie of the Week award after helping the Fairfield University men's basketball team post a 63-57 win over the University of New Hampshire. The freshman also garnered the award on November 12 and 19. 

Alvarez scored a game-high and a career-high 23 points to lead the Stags to the victory over New Hampshire. The guard also added five rebounds, two assists and two steals in his 30 minutes of work. Down the stretch, he stopped a 5-0 New Hampshire run that cut the Stags lead from nine points to four points before he made a pair of free throws with 1:42 left in the game.

The rookie has been the team's top scorer in six of the team's 12 games this year and reached the 20-point mark in two of the last four games. In addition to his performance against New Hampshire, he also hit the mark with 21 points against Oakland University. He remains the team's top scorer with a 13.8 scoring average and also has team bests in assists (42) and steals (22) in his 12 starts. He's also been the team leader in minutes, averaging 31.4 minutes per game played.

The Fairfield University men's basketball team, under Head Coach Sydney Johnson, will open MAAC play on January 3 when it hosts Rider University at Alumni Hall. The game is slated for a 7 pm start. After the Rider game, Fairfield will travel to Iona College on January 5 before hosting Niagara University and Saint Peter's University on January 7 and 10.