FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team will end the calendar year with a three-game road trip that starts on Sunday against Old Dominion University. In addition to its trip to Virginia this weekend, the Stags will also head to Massachusetts for a game against Boston College on December 16 before ending 2018 with a swing up to the University of New Hampshire on December 22.

In their last outing, the Stags nearly erased a double-digit second-half deficit against Oakland University but ended up one point short in an 87-86 loss to the Golden Grizzlies. Fairfield trailed by one point at halftime, but Oakland opened the second half with a 19-2 run that quickly inflated the score to 62-44 with 16 minutes left in the game. Fairfield whittled away at the lead until it faced only a one-point deficit with seconds remaining. The Stags had the final shot of the game, but the buzzer-beating shot fell off the rim.

Neftali Alaverz led all Fairfield scorers with a career-best 21 points and also added four rebounds and three steals. Jonathan Kasibabu secured nearly half of the team's 27 rebounds in the contest, grabbing a season-high 12 caroms. Fairfield shot 50 percent from the floor in this game (32 of 64), the third time in nine games that the Stags made at least half of their field goal attempts.

With his performance on Thursday night, Alvarez regained the top spot on Fairfield's stat sheet with his 15.4 scoring average, moving in front of Landon Taliaferro. The junior comes into the week with a 13.9 scoring average after netting a season-low two points against Oakland. Kasibabu raised his rebounding average to 5.9 caroms every forty minutes and became the second Stag to reach double figures in steals after his two against Oakland pushed his season total to 11 (1.2 per game). 

Old Dominion cruised to a 71-53 win over William & Mary on Wednesday night, outscoring the opposition by 10 points in the first half and adding an additional eight points to the total during the second half. Old Dominion saw two student-athletes reach the 20-point mark in the game, namely B.J. Stith and Ahmad Caver. Stith garnered a double-double after collecting 11 rebounds in the game. Marquis Godwin came off the bench to score 14 points, connecting on four of his seven three-point field goal attempts. The Monarchs netted 10 shots from behind the arc, ending the game with a .435 three-point field goal percentage.

Caver represents the team's top scorer overall, averaging 19.2 points per game. Stith is also in double figures with his 16.9 scoring average and also ranks as the team's top rebounder with 8.2 per game. The duo of Caver and Stith are tied for the team lead with 22 three pointers each.