Men's Basketball Rebounds with 70-59 Win Over Fairfield

BRIDGEPORT, CONN. (Feb. 18, 2022) - Led by a dominant rebounding effort and 16 points from senior KC Ndefo, the Saint Peter's University men's basketball team earned a 70-59 victory over Fairfield University Friday night inside Webster Bank Arena.

The Peacocks outrebounded Fairfield 43-28 in the contest and outscored the Stags 11-1 over the final 2:45 of the contest highlighted by a clutch 3-pointer from Doug Edert with 1:17 remaining to improve to 12-10 overall this season and 10-5 in MAAC play.

The win halted a two-game losing skid for SPU and moved them back into second place in the MAAC standings.

Fairfield, meanwhile, drops to 12-15 overall and 6-10 in the conference.

Much as he has done all season in MAAC play, Ndefo stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds, five blocks and three assists.

SPU also got strong efforts from Matthew Lee with 11 points and Fousseyni Drame with nine points and seven boards in the win.

On the defensive end, the Peacocks limited the Stags to 35.2 percent from the floor and 22.2 percent from 3-point range to improve to 7-2 when holding a team under 60 points.

How It Happened

• SPU came out of the gates hot to open the contest, forcing Fairfield to miss their first seven shots of the game to take an 8-0 lead thanks to four early points by Oumar Diahame.
• The Stags weathered the early storm by scoring nine of the next 12 points to cut the deficit down to two at 11-9.
• Trailing 19-13, Fairfield went on a 9-2 run to take their first lead of the game on a 3-pointer from Caleb Green.
• With 4:11 left in the first half, the Peacocks made sure to close the stanza the same way they started it, going on an 11-2 run capped by a 3-pointer from Daryl Banks III to take a 36-29 lead into the locker room.
• SPU started the second half and created their largest lead of the game by scoring the first five points thanks to another made bucket from beyond the arc from Banks III.
• With the score 41-29 in favor of the Peacocks, the Stags made sure the game did not get away from them using a 16-6 run to climb back to within two with 11:29 left.
• Fairfield would not get any closer, however, as SPU responded with a 10-2 run of their own to push the lead back to 10 at 57-47.
• The game of runs continued with Fairfield answering right back with seven straight points to cut the SPU lead down to three just before the under-four media timeout.
• It was all Peacocks down the stretch, though, as the 11-1 run capped things off and gave Saint Peter's its ninth win in the last 13 games.

Inside the Numbers

• The Peacocks had 10 different players score in the win and have now had eight different games with at least 10 scorers.
• The 43 rebounds were the second-most in a game for SPU this season only behind the home win over Nyack on Dec. 12.
• Ndefo, Fousseyni and Hassan Drame all had seven boards in the contest while Banks III and Diahame chipped in five apiece.
• The Peacocks were dynamite from 3-point range in the game going 7 for 13 from downtown in the win.
• SPU also was fantastic down low with a 36-26 edge in points in the paint.
• With five more blocks in the win, Ndefo now has 274 career blocks and needs just 26 to become just the 80th player in NCAA history to reach the 300-blocked shot milestone.
• In his 27 minutes on the floor, Banks III was +21 while Lee was +15 and H. Drame was +13.
• With the win, SPU has now won at least 10 MAAC games in each of the last three seasons. It is the first such string of consecutive double-digit win seasons in the MAAC since the Peacocks posted three straight 11-3 conference records from 1986-87 to 1988-89.

From the Sidelines (Head Coach Shaheen Holloway)

• "I thought the guys came out with good energy and I was happy with how things started out. We got complacent for a bit in the first half, but I thought we bounced back well.
• "I thought KC was big for us. He gave us a ton of energy on both offense and defense throughout the game. I also thought Matt Lee had a strong game running the offense for us."
• "Moving forward, we want to just keep playing Saint Peter's basketball and playing strong down the stretch as we head into March."

Next Up

• The Peacocks return to the court Sunday when they travel to Albany, N.Y. to take on Siena with second place in the MAAC on the line at 2:00 p.m.

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