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FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- With three straight wins tucked away, the Fairfield University men's basketball team will head to upstate New York for a pair of conference games, beginning with a Saturday afternoon game with Niagara University. Game time for Saturday's contest is scheduled for 3 pm. The Stags will complete the brief road trip with a Monday night match up against Canisius, a game that tips off at 7 pm.

Fairfield extended its current winning streak with its 78-65 victory over Siena College last Monday. The Stags never trailed in the game although the Saints were able to tie the score on a couple of occasions, the last of which came at the 1:28 mark of the first half (28-28). Fairfield led by as many as 15 points in the second half before settling on the 13-point win. Tyler Nelson led all scorers with 27 points, picking up five assists and a pair of steals as well. Four of the senior's nine field goals came from behind the three-point arc. Ferron Flavors Jr. also reached double figures with 16 points as he equaled Nelson's total from three-point range. Fairfield turned the ball over a season-low six times, undercutting the eight turnovers set at Wagner as well as against New Hampshire.

Nelson pushed his season scoring average to 21.8 points per game, his highest average since posting 22.4 points per game after the Jacksonville game on November 24. Flavors Jr. is next line with 11.8 points per game while Jesus Cruz is close to reaching double figures at 9.7 points every forty minutes. Jonathan Kasibabu remains the team's top rebounder with 5.2 caroms per contest. Nelson can hit another milestone tonight, needing two three-point field goals to become the all-time leader at Fairfield, surpassing Derek Needham's mark of 281. Nelson has 280 three pointers in his 117 games. He moved into second place on Fairfield's all-time scoring list following his performance against Siena and now needs 66 more points to become the school's all-time leading scorer, surpassing Tony George '86 who scored 2,006 points during his career.

The Purple Eagles, which lead the MAAC in scoring at 83.3 points per game, used a strong showing in the second half to defeat Quinnipiac, by a 95-76 margin at home. Niagara held a two-point lead at halftime but found it trailing by a pair of points with 14 minutes left in the second half. The Purple Eagles used an 11-3 run to recapture the lead and outscored Quinnpiac 44-23 over those 14 minutes to win the game by 19 points. James Towns paced Niagara with 26 points, his second 20-point game of the season. Kahlil Dukes scored 12 points and extended his school-record run of 31 straight made free throws. Keleaf Tate posted a season-best 15 points to aid the Purple Eagles, while Matt Scott also reached double figures with 11 points.

Dukes remains the team's top scorer with a 20.9 scoring average, while Scott fell to 19.9 points per game. The two players rank second and third in the MAAC for scoring, trailing only Tyler Nelson's 21.8 scoring average. Niagara has won four of its last five games and 9 of its last 11 dates to bring a 16-10 overall record into this game.