FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's Basketball hits the national television airwaves for the second consecutive Friday. This time, the Stags travel to Lawrenceville, N.J. for a 7 p.m. tip-off at first-place Rider. Robert Lee and Tim Welsh will be on the call for ESPNU.
 
LAST TIME OUT: IONA 70, FAIRFIELD 61
Trailing by 21 points to visiting Iona midway through the second half, Fairfield cut the deficit as low as five points late in Sunday's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference matchup at Mahoney Arena. However, the Gaels shot 10-for-11 from the free throw line in the final three minutes to keep the Stags at bay and hold on for a 70-61 decision.
 
Supreme Cook led the Stags offensively with 16 points, shooting 7-for-10 from the field and 2-for-4 from the free throw line. Cook also hauled in four rebounds and recorded a pair of blocked shots. Allan Jeanne-Rose joined Cook in double figures with 10 points, and James Johns Jr. added nine.
 
TJ Long headed up a team effort on the boards with six rebounds. The Stags outrebounded the Gaels, 39-32, including 13 from the offensive glass.
 
BACK SO SOON?
The Stags are meeting Rider for the second time in 12 days. Last season, Fairfield played Manhattan twice in 11 days, but that scenario involved a game being rescheduled due to Covid protocols. And, of course, the entire conference schedule was comprised of "back-to-back" meeting with the same foe in 2020-21.

Disregarding anything related to Covid, the last time Fairfield played two regular season games against the same opponent within 12 days was five seasons ago, when the Stags visited Manhattan on Dec. 30, 2017 and then hosted the Jaspers at Webster Bank Arena on Jan. 11, 2018.
 
THE RIDER UNIVERSITY BRONCS
Rider has reeled off seven consecutive wins to surge into first place in the MAAC at 10-3 as part of a 13-9 overall record.
 
Dwight Murray Jr. leads the Broncs and ranks third in the MAAC with 16.3 points per game. Mervin James adds 13.4 points per game and slots fifth in the MAAC with a team-best 7.0 boards per contest.
 
As a team, Rider ranks third in the MAAC at 70.0 points per game and ranks seventh defensively, conceding 66.4 points per contest.
 
LAST MEETING
A putback at the buzzer for Rider's Allen Powell forced overtime on Jan. 29 at Mahoney Arena, and the visiting Broncs outlasted Fairfield to escape with a 78-69 MAAC decision. Supreme Cook led the Stags with 16 points and a game-best 10 rebounds.
 
The Stags led by five, 65-60, with 31 seconds to play after a pair of Caleb Fields free throws. On the ensuing Rider possession, the Broncs got two offensive rebounds before Dwight Murray, Jr. canned a three-pointer to cut the margin to 65-63. After the Stags missed the front end of a one-and-one, Rider had one final trip to tie or win the game with 12.8 seconds to play. Fairfield again got the initial miss when a Murray pull-up drew iron, as did a putback from Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson. But the second carom bounced out to Powell, who caught and released in one motion just before the horn and sank the game-tying bucket as time expired.
 
After Powell and Allan Jeanne-Rose traded baskets to open the extra session, the Broncs embarked on an 11-0 run that saw Fairfield held scoreless until a Jalen Leach layup at the final horn rounded out the final tally at 78-69 in favor of the visitors.
 
Cook's double-double was his sixth of the season as he not 7-for-9 from the floor on his way to 16 points. TJ Long accounted for 13 of the Stags' 17 bench points, knocking down three of the Fairfield's six three-pointers. Leach had 12 and Jeanne-Rose was the fourth Stag in double figures with 10. Cook was the top facilitator for the offense with three assists out of the post.
 
In addition to Cook's 10 rebounds, Leach hauled in five as the Stags were outpaced on the boards, 41-30. Rider had 18 second-chance points in the contest, contributing toward their 46 points in the paint.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
Last month's overtime victory for Rider snapped the Stags' three-game winning streak in the series, pushing the all-time ledger to 37-35 in Fairfield's favor.
 
Since Rider joined the MAAC in the 1997-98 season, the Broncs hold a 28-25 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.
 
TWO AT A TIME
The Stags rank second in the MAAC and 13th in the nation, holding opponents to a 28.9 shooting percentage from three-point range. Conference foes are shooting just 25.5 percent from distance against the Stags. No MAAC team has made more than seven three-pointers against the Fairfield defense, including a 1-for-13 showing by Marist and a 3-for-17 clip from Canisius.
 
The seven made treys came in the win against Mount St. Mary's, with the Mount needing 21 attempts to convert their seven triples.
 
UP NEXT
The Stags return to Mahoney Arena to host Mount St. Mary's on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. The Mount, which hosts Siena on Friday, is currently 8-16 overall and 4-9 in their inaugural MAAC campaign.