Rome was not built in a day. This phrase applies to the Fairfield men’s basketball team as they posted a 1-2 record in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Florida last weekend.

This tournament featured many teams from major conferences, and the Stags opened up their slate of games with a 55-44 win over Arizona State. Rakim Sanders led Fairfield with 21 points, but the defense was the key for the Stags as they forced 22 Sun Devil turnovers and scored 25 points off of those mistakes.

Fairfield’s second game would prove to be a tougher task as they fell to the Dayton by a score of 56-49. Although the Stags started off hot with Ryan Olander scoring a quick 8 points in the first five minutes of the game, the center was in foul trouble for the rest of the game, which disrupted the Stags chemistry. Dayton’s players off the bench proved to be vital as Josh Parker led the Flyers with his 15 points. Poor free throw shooting along with an 18% from three-point range were the factors that prohibited the Stags from moving on to the championship game of the tournament.

The consolation game of the Old Spice proved to be another tough loss for Fairfield as they fell to Indiana State by 72-66 score. The Stags nearly came back from a 23 point second-half deficit, but it was not enough to overcome the Sycamores, who had four players with double-digit points. Although the swarming defense of Fairfield almost led to an impressive comeback, turnovers and poor free throw shooting plagued the squad.

Coach Johnson acknowledged the tough competition his team faced in Florida, but he hopes it will help them in the future.

“I think it was an extremely challenging schedule for us, we had three tough opponents. It was physically tough, but it is something we want to experience again come March,” said Johnson.

The Stags look ahead to the start of MAAC regular season play as the team goes on the road to face Niagara and Canisius this weekend. Despite the struggles the team had over the weekend, Coach Johnson is confident that the Stags will respond in the next couple of games.

“We’ve played several difficult games and we’ve gotten high quality shots, but it comes down to converting. We have to make more free throws and not lose faith. Our group won’t be fazed going on the road and we should have the intensity to win.

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