Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
A 13-2 run over the span of 6:12 in the late stages of the second half proved to be the difference, as the Fairfield Stags defeated the Canisius Golden Griffins 67-58 Friday night in MAAC men’s basketball action at Mahoney Arena in Fairfield, Conn.
The win, Fairfield’s second straight, improved the Stags to 8-10 overall and 4-4 in MAAC action, while the Griffs fell to 5-13 overall and 3-6 in league play.
Four Fairfield players posted double-figures in the scoring column, led by guard Jake Wojcik, who tallied 18 points on the power of four makes from 3-point land. Supreme Cook had a double-double performance with 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Allan Jeanne-Rose chipped in 15 points after shooting 5-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. Caleb Fields added 10 points, five boards and three assists to the winning effort for the Stags, who shot 44.9 percent from the field in the victory and ended the night with a 34-29 advantage on the glass.
Canisius was led by graduate student Jordan Henderson, who returned after missing four games with an injury, to score a team-high 13 points. Redshirt-freshman Tahj Staveskie added 10 points, two rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and graduate student Jamir Moultrie scored 10 points as well. Canisius shot 41.1 percent from the field and just 17.6 percent (3-for-17) from 3-point land, while making 9-of-11 tries from the charity stripe.
A bucket by Henderson with 11:39 left to play put the Griffs up 47-44, but that cushion was short-lived, as Wojcik drilled a 3-ponter of his own on Fairfield’s next trip down the floor to knot the game at 47-47. Back-to-back baskets by Jeanne-Rose gave Fairfield its largest lead of the game at 51-47 with 9:44 remaining, but Canisius forward Bryce Okpoh cut that lead in half with 7:02 left after he took a feed from sophomore Xzavier Long to make the score 51-49. That would be as close as the Griffs would get, however, as the Cook and Jeanne-Rose combined to score the game’s next six points to put the Stags up 57-49 with 5:27 remaining.
Canisius would only get within five points in the game’s final 5:00, as the Stags made 10-of-16 free-throws in the contest’s closing 3:54.
In the first half, Canisius led 27-20 with 4:26 left before intermission, but the Stags surged just before halftime and eventually took a 32-31 lead into the locker room at the break after closing the final 3:01 of the opening stanza on a 12-4 run, capped by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to close the first 20:00 of game action. Canisius sophomore Tre Dinkins scored nine points in the losing effort for Canisius, which has now dropped five-straight games to Fairfield, dating back to the 2020-21 campaign. Okpoh and senior Jacco Fritz each posted five points and five boards for the Blue and Gold.
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