ALBANY, N.Y. – The Fairfield University men's basketball team fell to Iona College in the 2018 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Tournament championship game by an 83-71 score at the Times Union Center. Tyler Nelson paced the Fairfield offense with 25 points, making six of his eight three-point field goal attempts.

                "I am incredibly proud of our guys and our program," Head Coach Sydney Johnson said. "We expected to be a good team in this league this year. Our senior leadership is the reason we reached this game. And we have a lot of young guys who will build on what Tyler (Nelson), Jerome (Segura), and Jared (Harper) started."

                Fairfield fell behind early in the game as Iona scored eight of the first 11 points to grab an 8-3 lead just three minutes into the game. After the lead reached seven points, Fairfield started to cut into the deficit beginning with a driving layup from Jesus Cruz.  Nelson made one of his three pointers at the 12:16 mark which brought the score to 17-15 with 12 minutes remaining and still trailed by two points at 19-17 at the 9:58 mark.

                Ferron Flavors Jr. dropped in a three pointer from the corner that pushed Fairfield into the lead for the first time at 20-19 with 9:29 remaining. Iona recaptured the lead briefly before the Stags scored five straight points to take their biggest lead of the game at 28-24 with seven minutes left in the first half. Nelson scored off a three pointer and Wassef Methnani added a jumper that made the score 28-24.

                The two teams battled back and forth for the next three minutes with the teams eventually pulling even with one another at 35-35 at the 4:38 mark. Iona finished the half with an 8-2 run including Zach Lewis' buzzer-beating layup that sent the Gaels into the locker room with a 43-37 advantage.

                Iona was able to double its halftime lead with a 7-1 start to the second half that quickly brought the deficit to double figures at 50-38 with 17:05 on the clock. The lead reached 20 points just six minutes later at 64-44 following Deyshonee Much's three pointer. But the Stags managed to make a solid run at the Gaels the rest of the way, pulling as close as six points after Jonathan Kasibabu's layup brought the score to 75-69 with one minute left in regulation.

                The Gaels finished the closing seconds at the free throw line which gave them an opportunity to extend their lead to 12 points by the final buzzer.

                Jerome Segura came off the bench and dished off eight assists in the game which moved him into ninth place all-time at Fairfield with 417 career assists. Cruz and Wassef Methnani each scored 14 points in support of the Stags' offense. Roland Griffin came off the Iona bench to lead all scorers with 29 points, including 11 of 11 from the free throw line.