ALBANY, N.Y. – The cliché of a "tale of two halves" was on full display on Sunday in Albany, as Fairfield University Men's Basketball posted its lowest-scoring half of the season in the opening stanza of its contest at MAAC frontrunner Siena, then followed up with its highest-scoring 20 minutes of the campaign to knock off the host Saints, 62-52, at MVP Arena. Supreme Cook led the effort with 12 points.
 
With their first win in Albany since 2018, the Stags improve to 9-10 overall and 5-4 in the MAAC. Fairfield has won its last three games, limiting its opponents to fewer than 60 points in all three outings. The victory is also the first over Siena for Head Coach Jay Young, the lone MAAC team he had not defeated apart from league newcomer Mount St. Mary's.
 
Siena falls to 13-7 overall and 7-2 in the MAAC, a virtual tie with 6-2 Iona atop the conference standings.
 
"This a one- and two-possession league where anybody can beat anybody else. Falling behind a couple games under .500 can really hurt you down the stretch, so this was a huge win from the standpoint of staying relevant and staying around the top half of the standings," said Young.
 
The Stag scored just 15 points in the first half, opening the game shooting 1-for-22 from the floor, but also limited Siena to its lowest scoring half of the campaign to head into the break trailing by just five points at 20-15. Fairfield followed with a 47-point outburst after the intermission and maintained its defensive intensity on the Saints, who entered the game averaging over 70 points per contest, to come away with the double-digit road win.
 
Ten of Cook's team-best 12 points came in the second half, while Caleb Fields had nine of his 11 after the intermission. TJ Long was the third Stag in double figures with 10 points, including a dagger three-pointer to extend the lead to 56-50 with just over one minute to play. Jalen Leach added nine points for the Stags and Allan Jeanne-Rose scored six.
 
Chris Maidoh hauled in a team-best nine rebounds – in addition to four points, four blocks and two steals – as the Stags held the advantage on the glass, 38-35. Cook and Fields each collected six boards.
 
"I went in at halftime and I ripped up the box score. We just said 'everybody is 0-for-0, nobody has missed a shot,'" noted Young. "We were only down five at that point. And credit to Siena, they had a lot to do with our struggles on offense, but we knew that were in an OK position if some of our shots started falling. I'm proud of the way the guys responded and the way we played defense and rebounded for 40 minutes to keep us in a place where we could win the game."
 
Points were at a premium in the first half, as the Stags shot just 5-for-32 (15.6%) from the floor in the first half. Fairfield overcame the shooting woes with lockdown defense, holding Siena to just 9-for-27 (33%) shooting, highlighted by six blocks. The Stags also outrebounded the Saints, 24-21, and forced four turnovers. The stingy defense held Siena without a point over the final 4:43 of the period, halving a 20-10 margin with a Zach Crisler three-pointer and a Maidoh put-back jam to head to the locker room facing a manageable 20-15 deficit.
 
For both teams, the opening stanza marked their fewest points scored offensively and allowed defensively in a half against Division I opposition this season.
 
The buckets came easier both ways in the second frame, as Fairfield started the period on a 7-2 run – a three-point play for Leach and back-to-back layups for Jeanne-Rose and Cook – to tie the game at 22-22 with 17:34 to play. The Saints rebuilt a two-possession lead at 36-31, but the Stags answered again with a Johns layup, two Maidoh free throws and a Jeanne-Rose layup that staked Fairfield to its first lead of the day, 37-36, at the midway point of the half.
 
Jackson Stormo netted a pair of free throws for Siena to put the Saints back in front, but Cook answered with a dunk to stake the Stags to a lead they would not relinquish then --- after a defensive stop – Cook added another bucket to make it a 41-38 Fairfield lead with 8:24 to go. The Saints cut the deficit back to one on a Jared Billups basket but Cook came through one more time, grabbing an offensive board and putting it home. James Johns Jr. later added a big three-pointer to extend the lead back to four points at 46-42, and Fields matched an Andrew Platek trey with one of his own to keep the margin at four points at 49-45 as the clock ticked under six minutes to go.
 
The Fairfield lead held at 53-50 with 90 seconds to play as Coach Young took a timeout to draw up a play. The result was a huge Long triple to double the margin at 56-50 with under a minute to go. Siena added two free throws on the ensuing trip, but Fields answered with a pair of free throws to push the lead back to six at 58-52. Fields added four more free throw without a miss in the closing seconds to ice the 62-52 victory.
 
The Stags shot 17-of-26 (65.4%) from the floor in the second half, including 4-of-8 (50%) from three-point range and were also 9-of-9 from the stripe after the break. The offensive resurgence boosted their numbers for the game to 22-of-58 (37.9%) from the field, 5-of-19 (26.3%) from distance and 13-of-16 (81.3%) at the free throw line.
 
Siena's Platek led all scorers with 15 points. Michael Baer, playing with a heavy heart after the passing of his father this morning, corralled a game-best 10 rebounds for the Saints.
 
Up next, the Stags make their first trip to Emmitsburg, Md. since 1949 for their first-ever conference meeting at Mount St. Mary's on Thursday, Jan. 26. The Mount is 7-13 overall and 3-6 in the MAAC after picking up a 59-55 home win over Marist this afternoon.
 
Action returns to Mahoney Arena on Sunday, Jan. 29 for a visit from Rider.