ALBANY, N.Y. -- Neftali Alvarez scored a game-high 18 points while Landon Taliaferro added 12 points as the Fairfield University men's basketball team fell to Manhattan College by a 57-53 count at the Times Union Center, site of the 2019 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Basketball Championship. 

Manhattan secured the lead early before Fairfield tied the game on Jonathan Kasibabu's layup that made the score 5-5 with 17:38 left on the clock. The basket was more significant for Kasibabu than just tying the score just two minutes into the contest because the senior reached the coveted plateau of 1,000-career points. After Manhattan took the lead on a layup, Kasibabu tied the score once again with two more paint points, a basket that a 7-0 run that gave the Stags their biggest lead to that point at 12-7. Alvarez posted the last two points of the run as the freshman went on to score seven of the team's first 15 points.

Fairfield's lead would reach as many as eight points after Landon Taliaferro made a pair of free throws that brought the score to 17- 9 with 13:50 left on the clock. The Jaspers tallied the next five points which turned the game back to a one-possession affair until Taliaferro netted a three-point field goal that doubled the lead and pushed the score to 20-14. The Stags would continue to lead through the remainder of the half and took a 33-30 edge into the locker room.

Manhattan scored the first six points of the second half and secured its first lead since early in the first half at 36-33. Fairfield answered with its own 6-0 spurt to recapture its three point lead at 39-36 as Taj Benning, Kasibabu, and Alvarez combined to complete the run. The two teams continued to battle back and forth and exchange leads until the eight-minute mark in the second half. 

Manhattan took the lead for good after Warren Williams connected on a basket that put the Jaspers in front at 48-46 with 7:32 remaining. Fairfield stayed close to its opposition for the remainder of the game but could retake the lead.

"This was a tough one for us but credit Manhattan for two good halves," Head Coach Sydney Johnson said. "In the last game, Landon had eight threes so they basically went man-to-man on him when he would pop out. When we tried to convert in the paint, we didn't convert enough so they never really had to really soften up on how they were playing Landon. They were able to outplay us in the second half and that was the difference and why they won the game."

Kasibabu finished the game with eight points and a team-best six rebounds while Matija Milin added seven points to the Stags cause. Christian Hinckson paced the Manhattan offense with 16 points, followed by Williams' 10 markers.