FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University men's basketball team will finish the 2018-19 regular-season with a road game, heading to Jersey City for a match up with Saint Peter's College. The Stags have won their last two games after posting a 59-44 win over Marist College at Alumni Hall,
The Stags posted back-to-back victories for the second time this season when they defeated Marist. The win comes after Fairfield edged Manhattan one game earlier. The Stags completed the season series sweep against the Red Foxes despite not reaching 60 points on either date. The team never trailed in the game, building a 10-point lead early in the first half and as many 19 in the game.
Jonathan Kasibabu led all scorers with 22 points, one of two double-digit scorers for the Stags.
Matija Milin and
Landon Taliaferro also reached double figures with 12 points each. Milin and Kasibabu helped Fairfield get off to the fast start by combing for all of the team's first 18 points as each student-athlete secured nine points in that run.
Fairfield never trailed against Marist last Friday night, holding the lead for more than 37 minutes and being tied for nearly three minutes. It marked the third time this season that Fairfield did not trail in a game, also accomplishing the task against Iona and Bucknell.
Four Fairfield student-athletes are averaging 10 or more points per game this season, led by Taliaferro's 12.5 points per game. The other trio includes
Neftali Alvarez (11.1 ppg),
Jonathan Kasibabu (10.8 ppg), and
Jesus Cruz (10.0 ppg). Kasibabu, who owns a team-best .567 field goal percentage, ranks first among his teammates with a 7.5 rebounding average.
The Peacocks play their third home game in the last four games including their 77-60 setback against Quinnipiac University on Friday night. The Saint Peter's offense was divided into fourths with Davauhnte Turner, KC Ndefo, and Quinn Taylor each scoring one-fourth of the team's point total (15 points each) and the rest of the team combining for the other 15 points. Quinnipiac led by eight points at halftime, 38-30, using an 11-0 run midway through the half to turn a one-point edge into a double-digit lead.
Turner leads the team in scoring with 16.9 points per game, a number which ranks fourth in the conference. He averages nearly the same number in MAAC games, posting 16.5 points per conference contest. Samuel Idowe leads the MAAC with 1.9 blocked shots per conference game and places second with 1.8 rejections per contest overall. Taylor and Idowe are the team's most successful rebounders, collecting 5.5 and 5.2 caroms per contest.
