March 3, 2006
The Fairfield men's basketball team dropped a 84-77 decision to seventh-ranked Niagara University this evening in the first round of the Citizens Bank Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Men's Basketball Championship at Pepsi Arena in Albany, N.Y. The Stags, seeded eighth, finish the year with a 9-19 record, while the Purple Eagles, 11-17 overall, advance to the quarterfinals.
Terrence Todd shot 9-15 from the field in the contest, scoring a team-high 21 points. Three other Stags also scored in double digits, as the team shot 50 percent, 32-64, from the field for the game. Danny Oglesby tallied 14 points, including four three-pointers, and hitting 5-8 from the floor. DeWitt Maxwell scored 12 points in the contest and Michael Bell shot 4-6 from the floor, with two three-pointers, and finished with 11 points.
The Stags took a 41-39 lead at halftime and after the Purple Eagles scored first in the second half, rattled off five straight points, capped by a Bell three-pointer. Todd hit a trey with 17:38 to play and Fairfield led 49-43. Niagara answered with three-pointers sandwiched around another Todd three-pointer, to cut the deficit to two, 51-49 (16:40). Maxwewll converted a lay-up with 16:17 to go, for the four point edge, but J.R. Duffey and Barry Durosier drained three-pointers on their next two possessions, to take a 55-53 lead, which they would not relinquish.
Niagara opened its largest lead of the game with 1:45 to play, 76-68. Todd knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:39 to play, to cut the lead to six points, and a short jumper, following a Herbie Allan steal, to make the deficit 76-72, with 1:33 to play. The Purple Eagles hit 8-10 from the free throw line in the final 71 seconds of the game.
The game featured four ties and six lead changes, with neither team ever holding a double-digit advantage. The Stags largest lead was six points, 49-43, with 17:38 left in the game.
James Mathis had 27 points and 12 rebounds for the Purple Eagles, while Clif Brown finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds.
Jonathan Han scored four points and dished out four assists in 22 minutes. All had seven points and three assists in his 20 minutes on the floor.
The Fairfield bench out scored the Niagara bench 29-5 in the game. Maxwell led the Stags with five rebounds.
