NEWARK, N.J. – Fairfield University Men's Basketball rode a dominant performance on the glass and four scorers in double figures to a 74-53 win on Saturday afternoon at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Declan Wucherpfennig and Braden Sparks paced the scoring with 14 points apiece.
 
With the win, the Stags level their record at 1-1. NJIT falls to 1-1 after opening their campaign with a double-digit win over Fordham at Rose Hill Gym earlier in the week.
 
"To win on the road in college basketball, you need to have toughness, you need to rebound, and you need to defend. I thought we did all of those things well today," said Head Coach Chris Casey.
 
Fairfield's 54 rebounds today were the squad's most against a Division I opponent since corralling 54 against American almost exactly 19 years ago on Nov. 10, 2006. The 19-rebound margin is Fairfield's largest since outworking Manhattan on the glass, 37-18, in a win on Jan. 10, 2020.
 
Today's effort on the glass was led by Brandon Benjamin and Isaac Munkadi with nine rebounds apiece. Wucherpfennig hauled in eight to go along with his 14 points – he and Munkadi each collected four from the offensive glass as Fairfield totaled 18 second chance points.
 
Wucherpfennig's 14 points marked a new career best after he netted 12 in his collegiate debut on Monday at Penn State. Sparks added 14 to his 25-point outburst against the Nittany Lions.
 
Joining them in double figures, Tony Williams had the first 13 points of his collegiate career fueled by a 3-for-4 day from beyond the arc. Benjamin narrowly missed his second straight double-double with 12 points to go along with his nine rebounds.
 
Munkadi was also just shy of a double-double with nine points and nine boards.
 
Rounding out the Fairfield scoring, Eric Mejia tallied six, while Nasir Rodriguez and Michael Rogan each knocked down one three-pointer to finish with three points apiece.
 
The Stags trailed by as many as eight points early in the contest as NJIT got out to a 19-11 start. Fairfield responded with an 8-0 run bookended by three-pointers for Rogan and Williams. Munkadi added a trey to even the contest at 22-22, and Rodriguez's transition triple put the Stags in front, 27-25, for the first time since 2-0.

A deadlock at 29-29 would mark the final tie score of the game as Braden Sparks canned a three-pointer and Munkadi went 2-for-2 at the stripe to send Fairfield into the locker room in front, 34-29.
 
The run continued out of the intermission on a Wucherpfennig bucket and five straight points from Sparks to extend the lead to 41-29. NJIT drew no closer than within three possessions for the remainder of the game, and the lead ballooned as large as 22 points as Fairfield sealed a 74-53 final for its first win of the 2025-26 campaign.
 
NJIT was led by 12 points from David Bolden and eight apiece contributed by Ari Fulton and Quentin Duncan.
 
Fairfield Men's Basketball caps off its three-game road swing this Monday, Nov. 10 at Seton Hall. Opening tip on campus in South Orange is set for 7 p.m. The Pirates are 2-0 on the young season with wins over Saint Peter's and Wagner.