Courtesy of FairfieldStags.com
NORFOLK, Va. – Trailing by 10 points with eight minutes remaining, the Fairfield University men’s basketball team finished the game with a 15-4 run to post its fifth straight win with a 55-54 win over Old Dominion University. Amadou Sidibe led all Fairfield scorers with 10 points, while Marcus Gilbert just missed a double-double with eight points and a personal-best 10 rebounds.
Neither team could establish a foothold in the opening half as the squads battled through four lead changes and seven ties over the first 20 minutes. Old Dominion secured an early four-point lead at 8-4 with 17 minutes left in the half. Derek Needham‘s layup cut that deficit in half and also started a 9-0 run that resulted in the Stags’ biggest lead of the game at 13-8 with 14 minutes on the clock.
The Monarchs turned the tables over the next six minutes to erase the deficit and post their own lead at 20-17 with eight-plus minutes left in the half. The advantage was short lived however as the Stags netted seven consecutive points to make it a 24-20 game as four different student-athletes scored during the run. The Stags eventually settled for a one-point halftime lead at 27-26.
The fact that the Stags had a halftime lead was not supported by the box score as the Monarchs shot 52 percent from the floor and owned an 18-9 advantage on the boards. But the Stags were able to hold the lead simply by dominating play in the paint, scoring 22 of their 27 points in the lane.
In the first five minutes of the second half, there were five ties and three changes resulting in a 34-34 score at the 15:25 mark. Old Dominion broke the tie with a basket by Donte Hill that pushed the home team in front, 36-34. That basket would spark a 16-6 spurt that would give the Monarchs the only double-digit lead of the game at 50-40 with 8:23 showing on the clock.
Fairfield chipped away over the next five minutes and pulled within five points before Aaron Bacote used a layup to extend the lead back to seven points at the 7:09 mark. Bacote’s basket was important because it marked the last points Old Dominion would score until there were five-tenths of a second remaining in the game.
While Fairfield’s defense shutdown Old Dominion, the offense started to find its range. Keith Matthews‘ started the rally with a field goal at the 5:31 mark, which promptly followed by a steal and a layup from Colin Nickerson. The Stags tied the game on the next possession as Desmond Wade hit a three-point shot with five seconds left on the shot clock, to tie the contest at 52-52.
Gilbert put Fairfield in front for good with a free throw as the clock showed 2:39 remaining. Maurice Barrow made it a three-point lead with a layup with 1:12 left as the scoreboard showed the Stags in front with a 56-53 lead.
Old Dominion missed its next three shots over two possessions, including a potential game-tying three-point try from Hill that missed as the shot clock wound down. DeShawn Painter grabbed the rebound and put the ball back into the basket with a half-second on the clock, Fairfield inbounded the ball and was unchallenged as times expired.
Painter finished with a double-double, registering 16 points and 11 rebounds. The senior recorded 10 points and seven rebounds in the second half and scored eight points during the Monarchs’ 16-6 run that produced a 10-point lead in the second half.
Three Fairfield student-athletes scored eight points, namely Gilbert, Needham, and Nickerson.
The Stags will return to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play next week with a two-game run through upstate New York. Fairfield takes on Canisius on January 3 and Niagara on January 5.
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