Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
Fairfield freshman Curtis Cobb scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and sophomore Tyler Nelson added 22 points and four rebounds as the host Stags defeated Canisius 84-77 Friday night in Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn. The win improved Fairfield to 12-9 overall and 6-5 in MAAC play, while the Golden Griffins fell to 10-12 overall and 5-6 in MAAC action.
Canisius senior Kevin Bleeker scored a career-high 19 points in the loss to go with seven rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot, while fellow senior Malcolm McMillan recorded his first career double-double effort with 15 points and a career best 10 rebounds. Sophomore Kassius Robertson was good for 18 points and five assists and junior Phil Valentiadded 17 points, five boards and three assists to the Griffs’ final line. Canisius shot 43.1 percent from the field and 87 percent from the free-throw line, but the Blue and Gold turned the ball over 11 times, which Fairfield turned into 21 points.
Fairfield’s Marcus Gilbert put Fairfield ahead for good with 2:11 left on the clock when he drilled a 3-point field goal from the far corner to put the Stags up 72-69. Canisius was able to get within one at 72-71 moments later when juniorKeifer Douse, who made his first career start on Friday, drove to the hoop for two of his four points. From there, Fairfield went on a 6-0 run over the game’s next 58 seconds to push its cushion to 78-71 with 36 ticks left in regulation time. Down the stretch, Fairfield went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final 36 seconds of play to seal the victory.
How It Happened:
• Canisius jumped out to an early 10-0 lead 2:58 into the game on the power of four points from Valenti, three from Bleeker and three from Robertson. Fairfield didn’t score its first points of the game until the 16:42 mark of the first half.
• The Griffs led 15-9 with 13:30 left before the halftime break after McMillan scored a traditional three-point play, but Fairfield answered with a 6-0 run to knot the game at 15-15 with 10:14 left in the first stanza. Canisius pushed back and led by four at 21-17 with 7:58 left before intermission, but a 7-0 run by the Stags put Fairfield back in the lead at 24-21 with 6:17 left in the first stanza.
• Canisius led at the half by two at 36-34 after the Blue and Gold shot 35.7 percent from the field and the team went a perfect 14-for-14 from the free-throw line. Fairfield shot 35 percent from the field and attempted just six free-throws in the opening stanza.
• In the second half, Canisius used a 10-4 run in the first 2:27 out of halftime to lead 46-38, capped a by traditional three-point play by Robertson. Fairfield answered that run by scoring seven-straight points in 1:07 to make the score 46-45 in favor of the Griffs. In that run, Cobb accounted for five of the Stags’ seven points.
• Six points from Bleeker and a bucket from Valenti pushed Canisius’ cushion back to 54-45 with 12:43 left on the clock, but Fairfield would fight back and knot the game at 56-56 with 9:09 left thanks to eight-straight points from Nelson and Cobb. The game would remain tight for the next few minutes before Canisius took a 65-64 lead with 4:46left on the power of a 3-pointer from Robertson off a pass from McMillan in transition.
• A dunk by Cobb with 3:59 left to play put Fairfield up 69-65, but two free-throws by McMillan and Douse’s lay-up with3:06 left on the clock knotted the game at 69-69. Moments later, Gilbert, who entered the game ranked third in the MAAC in scoring average, hit his trey from the corner off an assist from Cobb to give the Stags the lead for good.
Beyond the Box Score:
• Fairfield out rebounded the Griffs by a 38-32 count, with 12 of those rebounds coming off the offensive glass. Canisius is 3-9 this season when getting out rebounded by its opponent.
• The Stags scored 36 points in the paint, the second-straight game where the Griffs have allowed 36 points to be scored in the paint.
• The Griffs shot a season-high 87 percent (20-for-23) from the free-throw line, the first time the team has shot better than 80 percent from the stripe since Dec. 23, when the team defeated Nicholls in Las Vegas.
• All 10 of McMillan’s rebounds came off the defensive glass. He also went 11-for-11 from the free-throw line in the loss, the sixth time this season he’s made 10 or more free-throws in a game.
Quotes from Canisius coach Jim Baron
“They made plays with the dribble-drive and the Cobb kid was a real difference tonight. They have a good team over there, they have some good parts. We just didn’t get enough stops down the stretch and they did a better job of getting on the glass than we did, especially late when we really needed to get the ball back.”
“I thought we were right there, and then we settled for jump shots and we quit getting the ball inside. In the first half, we really worked to get the ball in to Bleeker and Valenti. They made some adjustments at halftime, but we need to do a better job sticking with the game plan and countering with our own adjustments.”
“They made some big shots down the stretch and we did not. I thought we played better defensively in spurts, but we need a full 40 minutes of that defensive intensity to be successful.”
Additional Game Notes:
• This was the 80th all-time meeting between the two Jesuit schools, with Fairfield holding a 45-35 lead in the series.
• The win by Fairfield snapped the Stags’ four-game losing streak in the series. It also ended Canisius’ three-game winning streak in Webster Bank Arena, where the Blue and Gold is 5-10 all-time against the Stags.
• Prior to Friday, Bleeker’s previous career-high for points in a game was 18, set Dec. 18, 2011 in an overtime win at South Dakota.
• McMillan had a career-high of seven rebounds on 11 different occasions before grabbing 10 boards Friday. His double-double effort was the sixth for a Canisius player this year.
• Canisius lost despite leading at the halftime break for just the second time this season.
• The team’s seven makes from 3-point land on Friday gives Canisius 1,000 3-point field goals in 123 games under head coach Jim Baron.
Up Next: Canisius will close out the month of January on the road Sunday afternoon when the team travels to play at Rider in Lawrenceville, N.J. Game time in Alumni Gymnasiums is set for 1 p.m. The game will be streamed online through MAAC.tv, with the radio call on Timeless WECK 1230-AM and 102.9-FM in Buffalo and through GoGriffs.com.
Leave a Reply