JERSEY CITY, NJ – The Saint Peter's University men's basketball team suffered its first home defeat of the season, falling 55-50 to Fairfield University on Saturday night at John Moore Athletics Center on the campus of NJCU. The setback drops the Peacocks conference record to 6-5 and overall mark to 9-7, while the Stags improve to 5-8 in the MAAC and 5-13 overall.
Matthew Lee scored a team-leading 11 points followed by
Daryl Banks III who scored 10 points.
The Basics
Score: Saint Peter's 50, Fairfield 55
Records: Saint Peter's (9-7, 6-5 MAAC) | Fairfield (5-13, 5-8 MAAC)
Location: John Moore Athletics Center | Jersey City, NJ
How It Happened
- Tarojae Brake hit a jumper at the 17-minute mark, putting the Peacocks ahead 4-2 and eclipsing the 1,000-career points threshold.
- For the next 9:35, SPU outscored Fairfield 11-3, taking a 15-5 lead with 7:37 remaining in the half.
- The Peacocks could only muster up two more points for the rest of the half, while the Stags scored 12 points to knot the contest at 17 all by the break.
- Both teams combined to go 1-for-18 from deep and neither side shot above 25 percent from the floor in the first half.
- SPU jumped out to an 8-2 run (25-19) to start the half on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, forcing a Fairfield timeout.
- Banks led the run with four points, both coming in the paint.
- Leading by five, Lee and Banks drained back-to-back triples, the home squads first threes of the night, followed by a layup by Hassan Drame to give the Peacocks their largest lead of the night (37-26).
- After scoring just 17 total points during the first 20 minutes of action, SPU put 20 points on the board in less than nine minutes of the second half.
- In spite of the double-digit lead, Fairfield cut into Saint Peter's advantage, pulling to within a single point (39-38) with seven minutes to play.
- The Peacocks stopped the Stags comeback when Doug Edert converted on a trio of free throws and KC Ndefo made a layup to give Saint Peter's a 44-38 lead.
- Down the stretch, a layup by Lee gave Saint Peter's a 46-43 lead with four minutes of action left.
- The next 2:39 was controlled by Fairfield, which went on a 7-0 run to give them a 50-46 edge.
- The Peacocks would never recover from the final Stags push, falling 55-50.
Notes
- Lee led the squad in scoring for the third time on the season while grabbing four rebounds, handing out two assists and forcing two steals.
- Banks surpassed double-digits for the 11th time and led the team with three thefts.
- H. Drame added eight points and was the unit's leader with seven rebounds.
- Saint Peter's held the lead for over 33 minutes (83%) compared to Fairfield's 2:34 time with the lead (6%).
- Fairfield was led by Taj Benning's game-high 20 points.
- The loss was the first at home this season, dropping the Peacocks' home record to 5-1.
Up Next
The teams will close out the series tomorrow at 5pm.
