Box Score

                BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – No one would deny that the Fairfield University men's basketball team has found itself offensively over the last five games heading into tonight's match up with Siena College. The Stags averaged 88 points per game during the five-game stretch which included a pair of 100-point efforts in wins over Niagara and Iona.

                Tonight, Siena did its best to slow down Fairfield, a strategy which seemed to work in the first half. But the plan did not carry over into the second half as the Stags scored 45 second-half points which propelled the team to its third straight win, a 78-65 decision over the Saints. The result also provided Head Coach Sydney Johnson with his 100^th win at Fairfield University.

                In the first half, Siena played deliberately by taking nearly the full shot clock before putting up an attempt or by pressuring defensively to try and disrupt the Stags offense. Senior Tyler Nelson was able to keep Siena honest though by finding cracks in the defense and converting open jumpers that accounted for 12 points, most among all student-athletes through the opening 20 minutes.

                   The strategy appeared to be effective over the first 20 minutes of the game as Fairfield managed just 33 points through the first 20 minutes. Still, the Stags were able to take a 33-30 lead into the locker room, a margin which would have been slimmer had Jesus Cruz's drive to the basket at the buzzer not fallen through the net.

                  "I want to respect Siena because they were really locked in defensively," Coach Johnson said. "They wanted to slow us down and keep us off balance. I loved our maturity, and that includes a lot of guys who are on their first go round. But they showed a lot of poise to stick with what we do. I think that paid off especially in the second half."

                 "We kind of fell into that trap at the start to play the half-court game," Nelson said. "But eventually once we started getting rebounds, we threw the ball up ahead to an open guy and started to play what we do and that is play fast. It really paid off in the second half."

                Ferron Flavors Jr. set the tempo for the second half when he netted a three pointer on two of the Stags' first three possessions which pushed the lead to nine points at 41-32. The Saints scored the next four points to make it a more manageable five-point deficit but a dunk by Wassef Methnani and another three pointer from Flavors Jr. pushed the lead to double figures at 48-38 with 14:28 remaining.

                The Stags, which never trailed in this game, would maintain a double-digit lead for most of the second half, leading by as many as 15 points before settling for the 13-point decision.

                Nelson finished with a game-high 27 points, enough to send the guard into second place on Fairfield's all-time scoring list. He surpassed Joe DeSantis who scored 1,916 points during his four-year career. Nelson raised his career total to 1,941 points which now stands just 65 points behind Tony George's record of 2,006 points. Nelson collected four more three-point field goals this evening, giving him 280 for his career which is one shy of the school record held by Derek Needham. Needham netted 281 long-range jumpers during his stay with the Stags.

                 Flavors Jr. contributed to the cause with 16 points, his best game since scoring a season-high 20 points against Jacksonville back in November. Khalil Richard led all Siena scorers with 16 points, followed by Ahsante Shivers who tallied 14 points.

                The Stags will depart for a two-game road trip at the end of the week, heading to upstate New York for a game with Niagara on Saturday and Canisius on February 12.