FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's Basketball returns to Mahoney Arena with its sights set on a third consecutive win as Manhattan comes to town on Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip-off. Bob Heussler and Joe DeSantis will call the action live for the Stags Sports Network on ESPN3.
 
LAST TIME OUT: FAIRFIELD 70, MARIST 61
Fairfield fell behind 23-8 to host Marist in the opening 10 minutes of Friday night's MAAC clash in Poughkeepsie as the Red Foxes converted their first 10 attempts from the field. But the Stags' defense clamped down and the offense heated up over the ensuing 30 minutes as Caleb Fields and TJ Long each scored 21 points to lead Fairfield to a 70-61 victory. Allan Jeanne-Rose joined Fields and Long in double figures, netting 11 points in the road triumph.
 
Supreme Cook scored seven points and hauled in a game-best 11 rebounds as the Stags held a 34-26 advantage on the boards. Jalen Leach also scored seven points, with James Johns Jr. adding two and Zach Crisler rounding out the scoring with a free throw.
 
In addition to his 21 points, Fields distributed a team-leading four assists and notched a pair of steals.
 
SECOND TIME AROUND
The Stags are 4-2 this season when seeing an opponent for the second time, defeating Marist, The Mount, Saint Peter's and Siena while falling to Iona and Rider.
 
Fairfield went 6-6 in return games last year - 5-5 during the MAAC regular season and 1-1 in Atlantic City. Those six wins include two "payback" victories over opponents who had earned a result over Fairfield earlier in the campaign.
 
THE MANHATTAN COLLEGE JASPERS
A 71-60 loss at first-place Iona on Friday dropped Manhattan to 9-15 overall and 7-8 in the MAAC. The Jaspers are 3-7 in true road games at 4-8 in all games away from Draddy Gymnasium.
 
Ant Nelson paces Manhattan and ranks eighth in the MAAC in scoring with 15.0 points per game. Samir Stewart adds 13.9 points per contest and Josh Roberts is scoring 12.2 per game. Roberts is also the MAAC's top rebounder with 9.9 boards per outing and tops the league in field goal percentage, converting 70.3 percent of his 158 tries from the floor this season.
 
As a team, Manhattan is sixth in the MAAC in scoring with 67.8 points per game and rates 10th defensively with 70.3 points per contest allowed.
 
LAST MEETING
TJ Long knocked down a three-pointer with 3:36 remaining to tie Fairfield with host Manhattan at 51-51 on Dec. 1 at Draddy Gymnasium.  But the Jaspers were the squad to emerge from the deadlock, holding off the Stags to claim a 56-53 decision.
 
Caleb Fields led the Stags with 12 points, while Jalen Leach netted 11 and hauled in six rebounds. Allan Jeanne-Rose was just short of a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds. Supreme Cook led the effort on the glass with a game-high 11 boards to along go with eight points.
 
The Stags pulled down 22 offensive rebounds – which led to 20 second-chance points – marking the most offensive boards since Jan. 4, 2010 when Fairfield also collected 22 caroms for their own glass at Niagara.
 
The Stags finished with 44 boards compared to 29 for the Jaspers.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
Manhattan's Dec. 1 win moved the all-time series to 59-54 in favor of the Jaspers dating back to 1954. The Stags won the last two meetings contested on campus - one in 2019 and one in 2020 - and have not been swept in the series since 2017-18.
 
TAKING THEIR BEST PUNCH
The Stags absorbed a 10-for-10 start from the field by Marist in Friday's win from Poughkeepsie. The Stags trailed, 23-8, after the Foxes blazing start but trailed by just one point at the halftime (32-31) and started the second frame on a 7-0 run to take a lead that they would not relinquisih.
 
After Marist's 10-for-10 start, the Red Foxes were 13-for-44 for the remainder of the game to land at 42.6 percent from the field. Their eight three-pointers were the most by a MAAC opponent against the Stags this season, though they shot only 28.6 percent against the top three-point defense in the conference.
 
20/20 VISION
TJ Long and Caleb Fields each netted 21 points in the win at Marist. The are the first Stags duo to score 20+ points in the same game since Taj Benning scored 24 points and Jake Wojcik had 20 in last season's win at Rider.
 
For Long, the 20-point game was his second in a row after also netting 21 in last Sunday's overtime win over Mount St. Mary's. The last Stag with back-to-back 20-point games was Benning, who scored 23 and 20, respectively, in MAAC wins over Quinnipiac and Saint Peter's in the 2020-21 season.
 
Fields' 21 points match his season high established in the November win over Evansville.
 
UP NEXT
The Stags embark on the MAAC's infamous "Buffalo Trip" eying a split with Niagara on Feb. 24 and a sweep of Canisius on Feb. 26. The regular season concludes on March 2 at Mahoney Arena with a visit from Quinnipiac.