TOURNAMENT TIME
Fairfield University Men's Basketball heads to Atlantic City, N.J. as the seventh-seeded team in the 2022 MAAC Basketball Championship. The Stags begin the tournament against 10th-seeded Canisius on Tuesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall. The advancing team meets second-seeded Saint Peter's on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. in the quarterfinal round. The entirety of the tournament will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks.

THE STAGS IN THE MAAC CHAMPIONSHIP
Fairfield's trip to the MAAC Championship Game last March was the ninth finals appearance in program history. The Stags hoisted the MAAC Championship Trophy in 1986, 1987 and 1997.

LAST TIME OUT
The MAAC's top defensive team lived up to its billing on Saturday as Saint Peter's stifled Fairfield for much of the afternoon in a 57-41 setback. Jesus Cruz paced the Stags with 11 points and Supreme Cook added 10 points with eight rebounds in the regular season finale.

Cruz went 5-for-9 from the floor to account for his 11 points, including one of the Stags' four three-pointers. He also nabbed five rebounds before fouling out. Cook added two blocks to his near double-double.

Rounding out the scoring, Caleb Green hit a pair from downtown to finish with six points, Jake Wojcik scored five, Taj Benning had four, TJ Long scored three and Chris Maidoh capped the effort with two.

Cook's eight boards and Benning's seven led the Stags to a 40-36 advantage on the glass, though Saint Peter's held a 7-5 edge in second chance points. The Peacocks also turned 15 Fairfield turnovers into 25 points, with the Stags converting only six points from 12 takeaways.

THE CANISIUS COLLEGE GOLDEN GRIFFINS AT A GLANCE
Canisius finished the regular season in 10th place in the MAAC with a 7-13 conference record as a part of an 11-20 overall tally. The Griffs finished strong with three straight wins: a road triumph at Quinnipiac and a home weekend sweep against Marist and Siena.

Armon Harried leads the Griffs offensively with 11.3 points per game to pace three players in double figures. Jordan Henderson adds 11.1 points per game and Malek Green has poured in 11.0 points per contest. As a unit, Canisius ranks sixth in MAAC with 69.1 points per game.

On the defensive end, Canisius slots ninth in the conference, ceding 71.5 points per outing.

LAST MEETING: FAIRFIELD 80, CANISIUS 76 (OT, 2/14/22 at Webster Bank Arena)
Taj Benning hit a layup at the buzzer to force overtime and Caleb Green sank the go-ahead jumper to beat the shot clock in the final seconds of the extra period to carry Fairfield to an 80-76 win over visiting Canisius on Valentine's Day at Webster Bank Arena. Jesus Cruz netted 14 of his career-high 25 points in the second half and overtime to pace the Stags in their second straight MAAC home win.

In addition to Cruz's 25 – which included a career-best five three-pointers on six attempts – Benning scored 17 and Green finished with eight.

Supreme Cook's pivotal overtime bucket marked the last of his 10 points to go along with eight rebounds. The Stags were edged on the boards, 32-27, which the Griffs converted to a 16-10 lead in second-chance points.

Fairfield made up that difference in the turnover battle where, despite an uncharacteristic 14 giveaways to the Griffs' 12, the Stags were the more opportunistic squad with an 18-14 advantage in points off turnovers.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Fairfield's sweep of the Griffs during the regular season moved the all-time series to 52-40 in favor of the Stags dating back to 1962. Fairfield has won five of the last six meetings coming off of a stretch in which the Griffs won four of five encounters. The Stags' most successful run was a streak of nine straight over Canisius from 2009-12. The Griffs also put together a stretch of nine consecutive wins in the series -- a run that was halted by Fairfield's victory in the 1997 MAAC Championship Game.

THE THRICE IS RIGHT
The old adage says that it's tough to beat a team for a third time. On 17 occasions, the Stags have played a team in the MAAC Championship that they swept during the regular season and are 11-6 in those contests.

Notably, the Stags have been on both sides of this bit of conventional wisdom during a pair of their title runs. In 1986, Fairfield swept Manhattan, Saint Peter's and Holy Cross in the regular season and competed the trifecta against all three foes at the Meadowlands en route to the MAAC Championship. Eleven years later, Fairfield was swept in the regular season by Iona, Saint Peter's and Canisius, but avenged all three losses to claim the 1997 conference crown.

TJ LONG: MAAC ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
TJ Long has been named to the MAAC All-Rookie Team, as voted upon by the league's 11 head coaches. Long finished the regular season ranked second among MAAC freshmen at 7.2 points per game to garner a spot among the conference's top five rookies.

Long's 7.2 points per game slot him at sixth on the Stags. He has come off the bench in all 31 games – one of four players to appear in every contest to date – averaging 17.2 minutes per game. Long has amassed his scoring totals on the back of .438 shooting from the floor, a team-leading .400 shooting percentage from downtown and a .750 success rate at the free throw line. His 48 made three-pointers are good for second on the team.

In addition to ranking second in rookie scoring, Long leads all MAAC freshmen in both made three-pointers per game (1.54) and three-point shooting percentage.