FAIRFIELD, Conn. – For the first five games of the season,
Caleb Green was content with setting up his teammates with his passing, a skill that helped him rank among the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)'s top ten for assists per game. Tonight, he reversed roles and showed that he can also finish plays as well, evident by his game-high 14 points as the Fairfield University men's basketball team took the second game of the two-game series with Iona College by a 67-52 score at Alumni Hall.
Green still managed to maintain his assist average by registering three during the game, but he inflated his scoring average with his double-digit performance that came off three field goals, a three-point basket, and seven free throws.
"Iona was aggressively guarding him tonight so he was able to get some foul calls and get to the foul line," Head Coach
Jay Young said. "Tonight was a complete box score for Caleb by getting to the line and still having a good assist to turnover ratio. I was really proud how he came back tonight because he had been struggling and felt the weight of the world on his shoulders."
The Stags also gained some advantage by starting four guards this evening, including the first career start for
Jalen Leach. The freshman responded with 10 points, his third double-digit effort through his first six games as a Stag, while
Taj Benning also reached 10 points on the evening.
Jesus Cruz rounded out the four-guard set and finished with seven points. His basket midway through the first half provided his first points of the night but more importantly pushed the senior over the 1,000-career point mark, checking into tonight's game with 999 points.
Sophomore
Chris Maidoh came off the bench to support the front court, collecting his first double-double of the season with a career-best 11 points and a career-high tying 10 rebounds in 21 minutes.
Supreme Cook was the starting front court player for the Stags, netting nine points and securing four rebounds on the night.
The game featured four lead changes and three tied scores through the first 11 minutes of the game, the last of which came at 15-15 with 9:24 on the clock. Fairfield used a 17-1 run over the next seven minutes to open up its biggest lead of the half at 32-16 after a pair of Maidoh free throws.
Jesus Cruz netted seven of the 17 points including a deep three pointer at the end of the run.
Iona managed to knock a few points off that lead by halftime, Ryan Myers came off the bench to score four of his team-high 14 points to bring the score down to 13 points, 36-23, by halftime.
Fairfield would add to its lead midway through the second half, pulling in front by as many as 23 points on two occasions, the last of which occurred at 54-31 with 12:37 remaining in the game. The Gaels cut into the lead at various moments of the second half, coming as close as 15 points after Johan Crafoord made two free throws with 12 seconds left to finalize the score at 67-52.
Myers was Iona's only player in double figures although Nelly Joseph and Isaiah Ross both came close with nine points each.
Taj Benning and
Jalen Leach each added 10 points to round out Fairfield's top scoring foursome tonight.
The win came 24 hours after Iona posted its own double-digit win over the Stags on Friday night. The ability to play back-to-back was welcomed by Coach Young as well as the players because it gave them a chance to erase the previous night's performance.
"I like the fact that we able to come right back tonight because we did not play well last night," Coach Young said. "We didn't have to wait around for a few days and feel miserable because we were able to get right back out there and play. This is what we are going to do all year so we always have to be ready to bounce back and play back-to-back."
The Stags turnaround from last night's result was not lost on Iona Head Coach Rick Pitino, who pointed out the grittiness of Fairfield's performance from one night to the next.
"I give all the credit to Fairfield because for a team to play that hard and that well is a tribute to the players and the coaching staff," Coach Pitino said. "They took our seniors out of the game and dominated our younger players and so they deserve credit. Our guys played hard but they were just outmatched tonight by a gritty Fairfield team."
Coach Young pointed to the Stags' passion as one of the reasons for the win.
"These back-to-backs are tough especially for the road team because they had to travel back to us again tonight," Coach Young said. "Iona is a good team but we ramped up our defense and they missed more shots tonight than they did last night. I give a lot of credit to Taj and Caleb who guarded their two perimeter guys tonight. And I think we played with more passion than we did last night."
The Stags will return to action next weekend when they travel to upstate New York for a two-game series at Niagara University on December 18 and 19. Both games are scheduled for 4 pm.
