THE OPENING TIP
Fairfield University Men's Basketball continues its three-game road swing on Friday evening against one of the three MAAC teams the Stags are yet to see this season, the Rider Broncs. Opening tip from Lawrenceville, N.J. is slated for 7 p.m. with all of the action broadcast live on ESPN3.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Trailing 66-65 with time ticking away at Marist on Sunday, Jesus Cruz scored the go-ahead bucket with 1:02 to play and added a fade-away jumper with 10 seconds remaining to propel Fairfield to a 69-66 victory. Cruz finished with nine points and seven rebounds, and Jake Wojcik led the Stags offensively with 17 points in the MAAC road triumph.
 
Wojcik scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, including three three-pointers. Taj Benning shouldered the scoring effort early on, starting the day 4-of-5 from three-point range in the first half.
 
Carrying the load in the post and on the boards was Supreme Cook, who scored 13 points and hauled in a game-best nine rebounds. The Stags held the edge on the glass, 35-34, with each team collecting seven offensive rips.
 
Despite committing a season-low six turnovers, the Stags were on the negative side of turnover margin, as Marist suffered just three giveaways.
 
CRUZ IN CONTROL
The late-game heroics from Jesus Cruz on Sunday were nothing new for the most veteran player in Fairfield and MAAC basketball history. The 142nd game of his Stags' career was the 17th one-possession (and/or overtime) win for Fairfield during his tenure. Cruz is averaging 10.4 points per game in those 17 nail-biters – a full point higher than his overall career average of 9.4 ppg – and he has scored the bucket that gave Fairfield the lead for good in four of those outings.
 
THE RIDER UNIVERSITY BRONCS AT A GLANCE
Rider rallied from 17 points down to knock off host Niagara this past Sunday, 70-67, to improve to 6-12 overall and 2-6 in the MAAC. The Broncs also own a league victory over Marist.
 
Rider is led by 14.0 points per game from Dwight Murray Jr. and 12.6 points per outing by Dimencio Vaughn. Vaughn is also fourth in the conference in rebounding at 7.5 boards per game, while Murray is the league's second-most prolific facilitator with 4.2 assists per contest. As a unit, Rider ranks ninth in both scoring offense (66.7 ppg) and scoring defense (71.0 ppg).
 
LAST MEETING: FAIRFIELD 72, RIDER 56 (Jan. 2, 2021 at Alumni Hall)
Fairfield rebounded from a 70-62 loss just 24 hours earlier to knock off Rider, 72-56, on Jan. 2 on George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall. Jake Wojcik led the way in the win with 13 points. Zach Crisler canned three three-pointers on his way to 11 points, and Taj Benning netted 10.
 
Chris Maidoh hauled in 10 rebounds to guide the Stags to a 33-31 advantage on the boards. Fairfield dominated the turnover battle just six miscues while forcing 13 Rider giveaways.
 
Dontrell McQuarter and Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson paced the Broncs with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
The Jan. 2 win for the Stags snapped a six-game winning streak in the series for Rider and pushed Fairfield back in front in the all-time series, 35-34. The Stags' longest win streak against the Broncs in a five-game span from 1964-68.
 
Since Rider joined the MAAC in the 1997-98 season, the Broncs holds a 27-23 advantage, including three postseason meetings. In those tournament games, Rider topped Fairfield in the 2005 MAAC Championship in Buffalo, while the Stags bested Rider in Springfield in 2012 and 2013.
 
The teams were previously league foes in the Tri-State Conference in the 1960s.
 
SECOND TIME AROUND
Fairfield's win over Marist on Sunday was their first "return game" of MAAC schedule. Last season, the Stags went 8-5 when seeing an opponent for the second (or third) time. In addition to the MAAC "back-to-backs" that comprised the majority of last season's schedule, this record also includes the second non-conference meeting with Hartford and seeing Manhattan, Saint Peter's and Iona for a third time in the MAAC Championship.
 
COMEBACK KIDS
The Stags have trailed in the second half in four of their victories this season, playing from behind in the wins over Sacred Heart, Stony Brook, Holy Cross and Marist.
 
The overtime victory over Stony Brook featured the largest deficit that the Stags faced in an eventual win, trailing by 11 points in the second half. The Jan. 23 win at Marist marked the latest that the Stags trailed in an eventual win as Jesus Cruz netted the go-ahead score with 1:02 to go in regulation.
 
SEE YOU (MUCH) LATER
After Friday's game, the Stags will have seen eight of their 10 MAAC opponents at least once, with both ends of the home-and-home series against Manhattan and Saint Peter's still on the slate. While Fairfield was originally set to host Manhattan on Dec. 31 – a game that was subsequently moved to Feb. 16 – the original schedule did not pit the Stags against Saint Peter's until the 16th game on the 20-game MAAC ledger on Feb. 18.
 
This scheduling quirk his has only happened once before in seasons with a 20-game MAAC slate (excluding the "back-to-back" schedule in 2020-21). In the 2014-15 campaign, Fairfield did not meet Niagara for the first time until the 17th MAAC game of the season.
 
1,000 POINT TRIO
Taj Benning scored his 1,000th career point on Jan. 20 against Monmouth to become the 45th member of the Stags' 1,000 Point Club. His 16 points in Sunday's win at Marist have since pushed him to 1,023 career tallies and into a tie with Ralph Rehn for 41st all-time.
 
In addition, Caleb Green reached exactly 1,000 career points on Jan. 16 at Quinnipiac, having scored 633 in two seasons at Holy Cross and 367 to date in two active campaigns at Fairfield.
 
Jesus Cruz netted his 1,000th point last season and has since risen to 15th on the career charts with 1,331 points. Next on the list for Cruz is Flip Williams, who scored 1,371 points for the Stags from 1976-80.
 
WOJ BOMBS
Jake Wojcik set a new career high with eight three-pointers against Iona on Jan. 11. The Fairfield record is 10 treys, established by Landon Taliaferro as a part of a 34-point day in the upset win over Texas A&M during the 2019-20 season.
 
Two Stags have also knocked down nine triples in a game: Curtis Cobb en route to a program-record 46 points at Manhattan in 2017 and Mike Evanovich in the "Miracle at Mason" 27-point comeback win over George Mason in the 2010 CIT.
 
This season, Wojcik has drained a team-high 44 three-pointers shooting at a 36.7 percent clip. He has hit three or more triples in five of the last six games, and is shooting 42.6 percent (26-for-61) with 3.71 conversions per game from downtown in seven appearances against MAAC opponents.
 
UP NEXT
Fairfield wraps up its three-game road trip next Friday, Feb. 4 with a return visit to Monmouth.
 
The Stags will return to Webster Bank Arena for a six-game homestand beginning on Sunday, Feb. 6 against Siena.