THE OPENING TIP
In a rematch of the 2021 MAAC Championship Game, Fairfield University Men's Basketball hosts Iona at Webster Bank Arena. Tip-off for the Tuesday matinee is set for 2 p.m. with Bob Heussler and Joe DeSantis calling the action for the Stags Sports Network on ESPN3.

• Webster Bank Arena Box Office – The Box Office is a preferred cashless site. Single game tickets for all Fairfield home games can be purchased in advance at fairfieldstags.com/basketballtix. All tickets purchased for the original Jan. 2 game date will be honored at the door on gameday.
• Webster Bank Arena Concessions – All food and beverage vendors will be cashless including the bar inside the Stags Club. All major credit cards are accepted.
• Parking – Season parking passes are still available for purchase at fairfieldstags.com/TIX. The parking garage and lots surrounding Webster Bank Arena accept cash only on gameday
• FREE Student Tickets – Admission is free for current Fairfield University students by presenting a valid StagCard
• $5 Student Parking – Fairfield students with a StagCard can park in any of outdoor lots surrounding Webster Bank Arena for only $5 (cash only). Please note that the free student shuttle will not run for home games from Dec. 18 - Jan. 11. It will resume when dorms reopen for the spring semester.
• Covid-19 Policy – Per the city of Bridgeport, all spectators are required to wear masks at all times while inside Webster Bank Arena unless actively eating or drinking.

LAST TIME OUT
Fairfield led for most of its game on Sunday at Siena before the Saints used a late run to gain the margin needed to edge the Stags, 69-62.
 
Supreme Cook picked up his second straight double-double, sharing the team-high of 14 points and garnering a game-high 11 rebounds. Jesus Cruz equaled Cook's point total, scoring 14 points off the bench by connecting on six of nine field goal attempts. Taj Benning also reached double figures with his 13 points and added six rebounds to the cause. All eight Stags to check in to the game contributed at least two points to the effort.
 
Fairfield scored 38 points in the paint, which was aided by the team's 13 points off turnovers. The Stags forced the Saints into 13 turnovers with seven of those coming off steals. Caleb Green and Allan Jeanne-Rose were responsible for two steals each. Green played all 40 minutes and added six points and six rebounds to his game totals.
 
I AM IRON MAN
When Jesus Cruz checks into Tuesday's game, he will be making his 139th appearance as a Fairfield Stag, breaking the program record held of 138 that he currently shares with Colin Nickerson.
 
Taj Benning will take the court for the 128th time on Tuesday. If he plays every game the rest of the way, he will likely finish second behind only Cruz in total games played as a Stag.
 
THE IONA COLLEGE GAELS AT A GLANCE
Reigning MAAC Champion Iona saw its five-game winning streak snapped on Saturday, falling to Saint Louis in an impromptu non-conference tilt, 68-67. The Gaels are 11-3 overall and 3-0 in the MAAC, posting two league wins over Marist and one over Rider in addition to signature non-conference vctories over then-#10 Alabama, as well as Hofstra, Liberty, Yale and Harvard.
 
The Gaels are the MAAC's highest scoring offense at 75.7 points per game, paced by 14.8 points per contest from Tyson Jolly and 13.7 points per outing from Nelly Junior Joseph, who also ranks second in the MAAC in rebounds with 8.4 boards per game.
 
THE GAELS IN 2020-21
In a unique campaign that saw Iona draw the #9 seed in the MAAC Championship with a 6-3 conference record, the Gaels raced to the conference crown for the fifth straight season (in which the tournament was played to completion). Iona fell to Alabama in the NCAA Tournament to end the year at 12-6.
 
LAST MEETING: IONA 60, FAIRFIELD 51 (2021 MAAC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME)
After splitting the regular season series at Alumni Hall, the Gaels and Stags played the rubber match in the 2021 MAAC Championship Game in Atlantic City last March. Iona took the victory and the conference title by a score of 60-51.
 
Jake Wojcik paced the Stags with 13 points, with Taj Benning and Caleb Green also netting double figures with 11 and 10, respectively.
 
Asante Gist led all players with 18 points for Iona, and Nelly Junior Joseph tallied a double-double wth 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The teams went head-to-head in the MAAC final for the second time in three occurrences of the championship game, with Iona also claiming victory in the 2018 meeting.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
The Stags' most frequent opponent with 117 meetings to date, Iona leads the all-time series by a count of 71-46. Fairfield has split the regular season series with the Gaels in five of the last six seasons.
 
1,000 IN THEIR SIGHTS
Taj Benning enters Tuesday's game with 969 career points, the closest active Stag to becoming the 45th member of the program's 1,000 Point Club. In addition, Caleb Green has scored a total of 983 points between his two seasons at Holy Cross and his two-year tenure as an active member of the Stags.
 
Jesus Cruz netted his 1,000th point last season and has since risen to 18th on the career charts with 1,296 points. Next on the list for Cruz is Maurice Barrow, who scored 1,309 points for the Stags from 2010-14. If maintained, Cruz's current 2021-22 scoring average of 7.7 points per game would slot him in 13th place all-time (1,419 points) if he appears in every game for the remainder of the regular season.
 
DOUBLE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Supreme Cook's last two performances made him the first Stag to post consecutive double-doubles since Jonathan Kasibabu had back-to-back double-doubles against Oakland (17 pts. 12 rebs.) and Old Dominion (13 pts., 15 rebs.) in the 2018-19 season.
 
Prior to this past weekend, the last Stag to register a double-double in consecutive MAAC games was Amadou Sidibe in against Rider (12 pts., 10 rebs.) and Quinnipiac (16 pts., 12 rebs.) during the 2016-17 campaign.
 
UP NEXT
After Tuesday's matinee, the Stags begin a stretch in which they will play four of their five away from Webster Bank Arena. That run begins on Sunday, Jan. 16 with a short trip up I-91 to challenge Quinnipiac.
 
The next home game on the slate is a Thursday, Jan. 20 visit from Monmouth.