For the Fairfield men’s basketball team, Senior Night, Feb. 25 against Marist, was, to quote the great American philosopher Yogi Berra, deja vu, all over again.
Such was the case for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that, like the last two games and four of the last five before it, they lost.
But they didn’t just lose; they lost what turned out to be a close game, 67-61, bringing their margin of defeat in the last three games to a grand total of ten points. The loss, coupled with a one-point loss at Manhattan on Feb. 23, dropped the Stags to eighth place in the MAAC standings, setting up a first-round date with No. 7 Niagara in the conference tournament, which begins March 3 in Albany, N.Y.
The loss, though, was also deja vu becaue, much like in their 91-72 loss at Marist earlier this year, it featured alley-oop passes from Jared Jordan, the nation’s leader in assits, to Carl Hood, a man whose ability to throw down emphatic dunks far superseeds his single-digit scoring average.
“[Jordan] might be the best player in the league,” Fairfield Head Coach Tim O’Toole said after the game. “He makes the team so much better single-handedly. He’s a phenominal guard.
By the end of the night, Jordan had 19 points and seven assists, two of them on lobs to Hood, and despite a good effort by the Stags’ seniors in their final game at the Arena at Harbor Yard, the Stags had finished their regular season at 7-11 in the MAAC and 9-18 overall.
On a night when the team’s five seniors were honored before the game with video tributes and framed photos, all five were in the starting lineup, and four of them, including walkon guard Charles Bentley, scored.
Bentley, who played the first 4;30 of the game and then came back out for the beginning of the second half, tied his career high by taking just one shot: a three-pointer that delighted the crowd and kept the Stags within striking distance in the first half.
Terrance Todd, one of the lone brighspots in what has been a lackluster season, led the Stags with 22 points, and in the process became just the sixth player in school history to pass with 1,500-point mark for his career. He also became the 12th Stag to score 500 points in a season.
Though Alvin Carter was held scoreless, Michel Bell (14 points) and DeWitt Maxwell (11) scored in double figures.
For a team that hasn’t won three games in a row all year to win four in a row and win the MAAC title would be one of the most remarkable accomplishments in school history.
The odds, to say the very least, are stacked against them, even though they have played well during certain stretches this year.
The Stags have yet to put together two consecutive solid halves in recent weeks, let alone four consecutive wins on the league’s biggest stage.
But O’Toole, while dissapointed after another tough loss, chose to look on the bright side.
“We’re doing some good things,” O’Toole said. “And on any given night, anyone can beat anyone.”
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