ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Fairfield University Men's Basketball saw its 2024-25 season come to an end on Tuesday evening the MAAC Championship First Round. The 10th-seeded Stags were upended by the seventh-seeded Sacred Heart Pioneers, 71-58, at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
 
"I'm proud of my team's fight. We've been fighting like that all year," said Head Coach Chris Casey. "Our energy level was extremely good, our effort was extremely good, but to beat a team like that, you need to keep up offensively. I thought there were stretches where we were close to doing that, but just not quite enough."
 
The Stags were led by 16 points and seven rebounds from Braden Sparks. Jamie Bergens added 10 to go along with a team-leading five assists in his final collegiate game. Prophet Johnson was just short of joining them in double figures with eight points while tearing down a game-high 10 rebounds as well as nabbing five steals and distributing three assists.

To round out the offense, Kyle Jenkins scored seven points, Peyton Smith and Deon Perry added five, Isaac Munkadi had four and Louis Bleechmore netted three as eight Stags contributed to the scoring.
 
Smith also garnered eight rebounds and Munkadi had six as the Stags were nipped on the glass, 42-39.
 
Sacred Heart started the game on a 7-0 run, building a lead that they ultimately would not relinquish. The Stags' offense got going thanks to Bergens and Sparks, who each scored seven points in the frame, with Perry and Jenkins adding five apiece. But the Pioneers used six first-half three-pointers to build a lead as large as 14 points and take a 39-29 advantage into halftime.
 
The Stags closed that gap in short order in the second half, as Johnson contributed six points to an early 9-2 run that shrank the margin to 41-38 with just three minutes gone in the frame. But after a missed three-pointer that would have tied the game, the Pioneers responded with a triple of their own that started the hosts on an 8-0 stretch that ran the tally back to 49-38 and induced a Fairfield timeout.
 
Another 7-0 spurt for the Stags, started by a Sparks jumper and capped by three free throws from the junior, brought Fairfield back to within six points at 56-50. But the Pioneers answered again, this time shooting 4-for-4 from the stripe to rebuild a 10-point margin. The Stags never faded, but never drew closer than within eight points the rest of the way as Sacred Heart closed out the 71-58 final.
 
The Pioneers were led by 18 points and eight rebounds from Amiri Stewart and 14 points for Tanner Thomas. Sacred Heart will play second-seeded Merrimack on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.
 
Fairfield University Men's Basketball concludes the 2024-25 season with a record of 12-20.