POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Head Coach
Jay Young stressed the need for the Fairfield University men's basketball team to put forth a better defensive effort after watching the Stags surrender more than 70 points in each of the last three games. Tonight, the Stags responded to that request with one of its best defensive games of the season which sent the team to a 55-52 win over Marist College.
In all three Fairfield victories this year, the team surrendered less than 60 points including tonight's game. The Stags defeated Iona by a 67-52 score and Rider by a 72-56 count, both decisions coming at home. Tonight, the team won its first game on the road and its first by a margin of less than 10 points.
The defense challenged Marist throughout the night, flashing out to the perimeter to stop the three-point shot and collapsing down low to keep the inside game from jelling. The Red Foxes missed their first 11 shots from three-point range and ended the night with three long-range jumpers made in 20 attempts. And, Fairfield forced 10 Marist turnovers including five steals.
"Tonight's defensive effort is where we need to be every game," Coach Young said. "That's who we need to be as a team but for a lot of reasons we have not been defending the way we should. We got back to playing defense that we need to play so we can put ourselves in position to be successful."
Marist looked as though scoring would not be a problem in the opening minutes of the game, spotting itself a 6-0 lead in just the first two minutes of the contest.
Taj Benning cut that lead in half with a three-point field goal to put Fairfield on the board before the home team rallied for four more points to take a 10-3 lead.
Caleb Green brought Fairfield to within a point with three-point field goals on back-to-back possessions which also started a 23-6 run that turned that early deficit into a double-digit edge for Fairfield at 26-16 with 6:45 on the clock. The Stags netted five three pointers during that stretch with
Jake Wojcik being responsible for two and
Tshiefu Ngalakulondi adding one more.
Jordan Jones scored for Marist to bring the deficit back under 10 points on the next possession but Fairfield responded with another six straight points to build its' biggest lead of the half at 32-18. The Red Foxes were able to cut the lead in half by halftime with an 8-1 run at the end of the period including four more points from Jones.
Marist whittled two more points off the lead with the first points of the second half. Just seconds later, Green added another three-point basket to his total that sent the lead back to eight points. The Stags' eventually rebuilt their double digit lead a few minutes later and would remain ahead by 10 or more through most of the second half.
With five minutes remaining in the second half, Benning released a floater that found the bottom of the basket to maintain the Stags' double-figure advantage at 53-42. The points would be Fairfield's last until Benning converted a one-and-one opportunity with eight seconds.
Between Benning's entries in the scorebook, Marist reeled off 10 straight points including a three-point field goal from Branden Bell at the 2:48 mark and another from Ricardo Wright. Wright's long jumper cut the Fairfield lead to a point at 53-52 with eight seconds remaining.
Benning was fouled on the in-bound pass to set up the make-or-break situation and the senior calmly swished both charity tosses to force Marist into a three-point shot for the tie. Wright launched the attempt from just outside the three-point arc but this time his shot caught all rim and bounced off harmlessly to secure the win for Fairfield.
"We certainly need this win," Coach Young said. "I am proud of our guys. We got back to defending and rebounding and because of that we were able to gut out a win over a very good Marist team."
Wojcik finished the night with a team-high 12 points while Green added 11 points and Benning posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Wojcik was the team's top scorer in both games this weekend. Green finished the series with seven three-point field goals in 10 tries. Benning registered his first career double double with his effort on Saturday night, setting a career high for rebounds..
Jones paced all Marist scorers with 17 points and added a team-best seven rebounds during his 27 minutes on the court. Raheim Sullivan came off the bench to tally 10 points off five field goals.
Fairfield will return home for a pair of games next weekend when it hosts Canisius College on January 22 and 23 at Alumni Hall. After that series, the Stags will be away for the most of the remaining schedule, playing six straight road games before ending the regular season with a pair of home games against Quinnipiac on the final regular-season weekend of March 5-6.
