FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's Basketball is back on the road on Sunday, Jan. 15 to complete the home-and-home series with defending MAAC Champion Saint Peter's. The Stags are eying their first season sweep of the Peacocks since doing so in back-to-back campaigns in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The 2011-12 sweep of SPU was also the last time that Fairfield swept the reigning conference champs.
 
LAST TIME OUT: IONA 75, FAIRFIELD 69
After 16 lead changes, host Iona held off Fairfield, 75-69, on Friday at the Hynes Center. Jake Wojcik scored 16 points – topping 1,000 tallies in his collegiate career – and TJ Long led players with 18 points.
 
Wojcik shot 7-for-13 from the floor with a pair of three-pointers. He also hauled in six rebounds and dished out a career-best seven assists. Long's 18 points included three triples as well as a 7-for-8 day at the free throw line. Supreme Cook was the third Stag in double figures with 14 points.
 
Allan Jeanne-Rose pulled down a team-best eight rebounds as the Stags won the battle under the boards, 34-31. Fairfield's 11 offensive rips were converted into 11 second chance point, also edging the Gaels in that category, 11-10.
 
FILLING OUT THE STATSHEET
After tallying 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists on Friday, Jake Wojcik is the first Stag to score double figures and tally at least six boards and six helpers since Caleb Green posted 10 points, five rebounds and eight assists in last season's home win over Niagara.
 
With Allan Jeanne-Rose adding seven points, eight boards and five assists on Friday night, AJR and Wojcik became the first Fairfield teammates to each post a "5-5-5" statline in the same game since Taj Benning (7-5-5) and Jesus Cruz (14-5-5) in the Nov. 9, 2019 meeting with UMass at Webster Bank Arena.
 
THE SAINT PETER'S UNIVERSITY PEACOCKS
A 58-51 loss at Quinnipiac on Friday evening moved Saint Peter's to 7-10 overall and 2-6 in the MAAC this season. The Peacocks have lost four straight games, all in the conference play, since turning the calendar to January.
 
Isiah Dasher leads Saint Peter's in scoring, slotting 11th in the MAAC with 14.1 points per game. Jaylen Murray is also netting double figures at 11.5 points per contest. Latrell Reid is the Peacocks' top rebounder at 5.4 boards per game, helping SPU to a +3.9 rebounding margin.
 
As a unit, the Peacocks are 11th in the MAAC in scoring at 62.4 points per game but third defensively, ceding 65.4 points per outing.
 
LAST MEETING
After opening the 2022-23 season with eight consecutive games away from home, Fairfield made its long-awaited debut at the Leo D. Mahoney Arena on Dec. 3, 2022 with a 67-55 win over visiting Saint Peter's. Caleb Fields netted 19 points as one of four Stags in double figures as the Stags knocked off the defending MAAC Champion Peacocks before a standing room only crowd of 3,516.
 
Fields play all 40 minutes on his way to 19 points, shooting 5-of-7 from the field with two three-pointers and converting 7-of-8 from the free throw line. As a unit, the Stags shot 19-of-42 (45.2%) from the floor, 4-of-11 (.36.4%) from three-point range and 25-of-31 (80.6%) from the stripe.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
In 126 meetings with their most frequent opponent in program history, Saint Peter's holds a 64-62 edge over the Stags in the all-time series. Fairfield is in search of its first season sweep since 2012-13, when the Stags won both regular season meetings as well as a MAAC Tournament encounter. Fairfield also swept the Peacocks in the 2011-12 campaign.
 
Last season's three wins by the Peacocks en route to their historic March Madness run marked the first time (excluding 2017-18, when the teams only played once) that both squads did not earn at least one victory in the series since the "Desi Washington Year" when the SPU guard beat the Stags in the closing seconds in all three meetings in 2013-14.
 
NOT TOO LATE IN THE SLATE
After Sunday's game, the Stags will have played both ends of the series with Saint Peter's before opening this season's home-and-home against MAAC foes Canisius, Mount St. Mary's, Quinnipiac and Rider.
 
Conversely, Fairfield did not play Saint Peter's last season until the 16th game of the 2021-22 conference calendar after already playing two contests against Canisius, Marist, Monmouth, Niagara, Quinnipiac and Siena.
 
BACK ON THE ROAD
Following their seven-game homestand to open Mahoney Arena, the Stags are playing back-to-back true road games for the first time since starting the season with four in a row at Wake Forest, New Hampshire, Xavier and Wagner. Fairfield is not scheduled to play back-to-back home contests for the remainder of the season.
 
AIN'T LIFE GRAND
Jake Wojcik scored a season-best 16 points on Friday to run his career total to 1,002 points. Wojcik scored 346 points in two seasons at Richmond from 2018-20 and has netted 656 points to date in three campaigns with the Stags. In doing so, he joins a unique list of student-athletes who tallied their 1,000th career point in a Fairfield uniform but did not score all 1,000 of those tallies as a Stag.
 
Kim Fisher (1,338 points - 593 at Essex CC, 745 at Fairfield)
Danny Odums (1,305 points - 628 at Austin Peay, 677 at Fairfield)
Caleb Green (1,085 points - 633 at Holy Cross, 452 at Fairfield)
Jake Wojcik (1,002 points - 346 at Richmond, 656 at Fairfield)
Richie O'Connor (1,001 points - 550 at Duke, 451 at Fairfield)
 
UP NEXT
The Stags return home on Friday, Jan. 20, welcoming Canisius to Mahoney Arena for a 7 p.m. tip. The Griffs, who will host Siena on Sunday, are currently 4-12 overall and 2-5 in the MAAC.
 
Tickets for Friday's game and all six remaining home games are on sale now at FairfieldStags.com/TIX.