High Five

It was supposed to be a tough battle for Fairfield against the Niagara Purple Eagles, who beat the Stags easily 85-76 back on Jan. 9. But for the first time all season the Stags did not have to fight to hold onto a lead going down the stretch and picked up a major win and their fifth in a row.

With 13:46 left in the game, sophomore guard Herbie Allen received a pass in the left corner from freshman Anthony Johnson, and nailed a wide open three pointer, to give Fairfield a 15 point lead, its largest of the year.

Niagara (11-11, 6-5 MAAC) never got within ten points again as Fairfield (8-15, 6-5 MAAC) defeated the Purple Eagles 68-56 to extend its winning streak to five games. Anthony Johnson led the way for Fairfield with 16 points, tying a career high that he set against Canisius on Dec. 10.

“We really wanted this win,” said Johnson when asked what it meant to score 16 points, after being held scoreless Friday night, “I was in the right spot at the right time.”

Last time out against Niagara the Stags could not keep up with the Purple Eagles, who are averaging 82.7 points against MAAC opponents. The Purple Eagles had 15 three pointers and shot 54.9 percent from the floor.

This time Fairfield held Niagara to just 33.3 percent shooting and only allowed five three pointers. Charron Fisher, who is leading the MAAC in scoring with 22.9 points per game and has 10 20-plus games in his last 13 games, was held to only 14 points.

“We were definitely prepared to play emotionally,” said Head Coach Ed Cooley, “I thought our players were really focused on scouting reports and what we want to adjust from the last game.

Senior guard Michael Van Schaick finished with 15 points, making it 12 straight games in which he has scored in double figures. Van Schaick said that the key to the win was the execution of the game plan.

“The first time we played them they almost set a school record with 15 threes, this time we did a great job putting together a game plan,” he said. “That was the main thing today, our game plan, everyone understood it.”

The first half went almost exactly the way that the Stags hoped that it would and they went into the break with a 34-25 lead. While their shooting percentage was only 40.7 percent, they held Niagara to an even worse 29 percent, including just 2-for-12 from beyond the three point arc.

Anthony Johnson led the way for Fairfield in the first half with 12 points, while Van Schaick added nine points of his own.

“We really wanted to get our big guys involved today,” said Van Schaick. “We wanted to get them easy baskets near the hoop, and that is what we were able to do.”

The Stags would hold onto that lead throughout the second half, never allowing the Purple Eagles back into the game.

With twelve minutes to go the Stags were up by 17 points and while Niagara would bring the score a little closer, they could not eat away the Stags lead.

With 2:38 left in the game and the Stags in control, leading 66-53, Michael Van Schaick stole the ball and threw a long pass to Jonathan Han, who bounced the ball behind his back to a trailing Anthony Johnson, who went up for a huge dunk, but missed, ruining would could have been the play of the year.

“We just want to take one game at a time. I’m not going to get over excited at the fact that we won a basketball game,” Cooley said. “We are all about getting better game to game. Now we just want to focus on our next opponent, which is Canisius.” ‘ Until then check the Mirror Sports Blog for more on the game, including a game log from Keith Connors.’

Also be sure to check out the blog for a game log of the women’s basketball game against Loyola, by Chris Simmons.’