FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team will play the second of six consecutive road games on Sunday night when it travels to Loyola University Maryland. The Stags and the Greyhounds will meet up for a 6 pm contest at Reitz Arena on the Loyola Md. campus. The game will also be televised on Stadium TV.

The Stags picked up their first win of the 2019-20 season with its 68-63 win over Holy Cross on the road. The victory also marked Jay Young's first win as Fairfield's basketball coach and his first as a head coach in Division I. Eight different Fairfield student-athletes scored in the game with Jesus Cruz pacing the offense with 23 points. Taj Benning was the team's other double-digit scorer with 13 points.

The Stags scored a season-high 68 points in the game, surpassing the team's season opening total of 64 points against Bucknell. Fairfield was outrebounded for the first time this season with its 34 rebounds, two less than Holy Cross' total of 36 (13 offensive). The two teams played a close game that did not allow either squad to obtain a double-digit lead. Holy Cross' biggest advantage stood at eight points midway through the first half while Fairfield did not lead by more than six points which came in the final minute of overtime. Benning paced the team in overtime with six points, all of which came in the final 2:43 of extra time. Cruz was responsible for the other four points in overtime, all of which came in the first two minutes of the period.

Cruz raised his scoring average to 20.3 points following his second 20-plus point effort, one of only two student-athletes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) to own a scoring average of 20 points. Matt Balanc represents the other MAAC student-athlete, averaging 23 points after one game for Quinnipiac. Landon Taliaferro (13.3 ppg) and Taj Benning (10.7 ppg) are also scoring in double figures at this point.

The Greyhounds  are the third Patriot League team on Fairfield's schedule through the first four games. Two of those Patriot League opponents placed in the top four of the League's preseason coaches' poll with Bucknell taking second and Loyola taking fourth. In their last outing, the Greyhounds fell behind by 19 points in the first half, managed to cut that deficit down to seven points in the second half before falling by nine points at Old Dominion last Wednesday.

As he has all season, Andrew Kostecka paced the Loyola offense with 14 points in addition  to his four rebounds, three blocks, and four steals. Like their opponent tonight, Loyola has taken care of the basketball this year, committing just 10 turnovers in each of its first two games before making 21 miscues against Old Dominion. Despite the blip, Loyola still holds a positive turnover margin, averaging 13.7 turnovers per game in comparison to their opponents 16.7 turnovers per contest.